Beautiful but Broken
by Mazraf
Summary: As a kid Naruto develops a split personality. The mind can only handle a certain amount of strain. What will happen if he loses control of the one thing you are never supposed to lose control of? Story starts slow but picks up, so keep reading, and review
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter 01: Prologue.

Before there were any established Hidden Villages, there were the clans. Many prominent clans were smart enough to know not to stay in one place for very long, while others did not approve of a nomadic lifestyle and settled down in fortified areas. Nobody could trust someone from the outside. Many of these clans secured their futures by putting talented individuals from the family up for hire. Clashes and interaction between clans was minimal, but deadly, especially when the standing of your family was on the line when missions were assigned, but times were changing. People who refused to risk their own lives and led civilian lifestyles recognized that they could easily obtain power through the hire of the more powerful families.

Prominent clans had their own infrastructures consisting of Clan Heads, and a group of figureheads designed to keep the Clan Head in check, but motivated largely by their own greed, and not the welfare of the clan. As time passed, these clans developed their own signature styles, kept within the family, so that it could not be turned against them. Some of these signature styles were not usable by all members in a clan, and it was suspected that these styles were specific only to a specific ancestry within a clan. While some of these Bloodlines were useful, others were used mercilessly, and only for the advancement of one's own clan.

The Clan Head of the Senju Clan, for example, used his Mokuton to create his clan's home. Not having any Elders or a Council to counteract his decisions, his clan was dependant on his guidance and wisdom in order to survive. They didn't like to kill and reduce the value of a person to secure their economic future. They were content to sell the goods that the more proficient wielders of the Bloodline could grow. In contrast the Hyugas, for their own protection, separated the family to protect their bloodline, each faction having specific responsibilities to keep the clan stable. At first, both halves of the Hyuga family had equal standing, but after one of the weaker family members with a mutated, and non-functional bloodline ruined the reputation of one of the halves, the other stepped up, declaring themselves as the Main Branch of the family, and forcing the new Branch House into servitude, branding them with an experimental seal that would seal away their Bloodline when they died. When these radical changes took place, the now disgraced family member, one Madara Hyuga, was cut off from the clan, after having the seal forced onto his head instead of his back, like the other Branch House family members. Putting the seal in such a visible location was meant to act as an ultimate humiliation before sending him away. The clan was so wrapped up in trying to remove their "weakness" that they did not mind when Madera took his younger brother with him. Their parents were immediately killed by Main Branch family members. The other Branch House members were now fodder for the Main Branch and were used as soldiers, with little regard for their life.

But times were changing. The civilians who wanted more power realized that to get to power, they needed obstacles that impeded them removed. The missions offered to these specialized family members were becoming more sinister. Assassinations were becoming more common. Clashes between clans were becoming more common, as was the bloodshed associated with it, but the desired result was beginning to take form. Some of the more powerful civilians declared their own territories, just for the sake of being a person with political power. At first, there were five such territories: Fire Country, Wind Country, Water Country, Lighting Country, and Earth Country. These men likened themselves to the different Elemental Natures, because they believed themselves powerful, and there is no force more powerful than nature, or its different forms.

As the years passed, it became clearly obvious that to ensure the futures of the ninja families, they would need to band together. Word had spread that the more bloodthirsty clans had rebelled against the civilians who hired them, because they refused to pay their fee, after completion of an assignment. Using their Bloodline, various clans killed most of the civilians in those territories, tarnishing the reputation of Bloodline users. Most of the self-proclaimed Feudal Lords, demanded Bloodline clans to leave, for the sake of the safety of their followers. Public opinion meant a lot to the Lords, but even through the fear, they struck bargains with some Bloodline clans to stay, and suppress their power, to pass as normal. If they were to leave, they would strengthen some other territory, and that was unacceptable.

Ten years after these killings began, than the hidden villages began to form. Clans banding together and pledging their allegiance to the Feudal Lords, who were only too happy to be granted more strength and political power, was common place. Once strong clans like the Senju Clan were on the verge of disappearing. It was at this time when Madara Uchiha approached them. The current Senju Clan leader was a young man of twenty, thrust into the position if Clan Leader when his father was killed in an assassination mission. His name was Hashirama. Madara and his kin, a small group which currently consisted of his immediate family stepped out of the morning fog, and approached the encampment, Madara leading the others. The Senju guards that were posted at the entrance immediately reacted by going on the offensive. Clasping their hands together, focusing their energies, and whipping through hand-signs, they fired wooden posts with sharpened points at the intruders, while a defensive canopy of trees shot our of the ground exactly where the wooden projectiles were. Three more hand-signs and the fog thickened, making it difficult to see anything. As the guards relaxed, they saw red eyes flash through the mist.

Madara, having activated his new Doujutsu, went through his own hand-signs, stopping on Tiger. Tracking where the deadly projectiles were flying, he used a carefully aimed "Fire Release: Great Fireball." The flame shot out of his mouth, flying forward and intercepting the deadly wooden projectiles, burning them into ashes, and blowing the smoldering remnants away, as it continued to swell and burn through the trees that had just been grown to block their path. Hashirama's younger brother, Kenyu, having just gotten to the gate, and seeing the imminent danger from the large fireball bearing down on them took action. Not being that proficient with Mokuton, he made four hand-signs, and employed his preferred style. "Water Release: Water Wall." Pulling water right out of the air, he formed it into a large wall. The fireball was immediately extinguished when it made contact with the wall, creating a large amount of steam. Kenyu slowly approached his wall, making his hand-signs with the intent to kill. "Lightning Release: Lightning Strike." Thrusting his hand forward, Kenyu makes contact with the wall, electrifying it. Stepping back, still making hand-signs, "Air Release: Daitoppa." The resulting gust of wind blew through the wall resulting in chunks of electrified water to rain down on Madara, and his family.

Without warning, a figure broke out of the ground, in between Madara and his family, and with quick hand-signs, encased the family in a round wooden prison. With two steps, Hashirama was behind Madara, his left hand grabbing Madara gruffly, his right with a short sword at Madara's throat. "State your business."

"I'm not here to attack. I'm just here to talk."

"I find that rather hard to believe. Just last week, we were attacked by a clan, who wanted to know the secrets of our clan Jutsu."

"I'm not here for your Jutsu. Please just listen to me."

"Give me one good reason why we should let you live?"

"If I was here to kill you, would I have brought my family with me?"

Losing patience Hashirama dug his sword point a little bit deeper into the skin of Madara's neck, drawing a drop of blood. "That is not a reason. Storming our home with such pitiful numbers will only get you killed."

Madara, realizing that this was a bad time for what was left of the Senju clan decided to get straight to the point. "If you do not listen to me, what is left of your noble clan will no longer exist in the coming years. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but we are in the middle of a Bloodline War, right now. We need your strength."

Hashirama withdrew his sword from Madara's neck and turned him around, slowly. Putting the sword away, he quickly backhanded Madara, knocking him onto his back. "Do you wish to insult me? As a Bloodline user, I am well aware of the public opinion of me and my clan. But what do you propose we do about it? The best we can do right now, is to hold our own and stay with people we can trust."

"That course of action will only result in the extermination of all of the Bloodline Users," said Madara from his position on the ground. He quickly rubbed some of the blood off his lip from the punch. "We need to band together."

"We are together. My clan and my family stand together. I believe in my people, just as they believe in me."

"That is good. But we need to expand on it. The clans to the North and the East have already banded together, formed alliances, and secured their futures. By joining together and establishing Hidden Villages, they have ensured their futures, as we must do now."

"If I may, Brother," interrupted Kenyu. "What village or country would take in you, me, or any of us? Due to the acts of clans like the Kaguyas, we are feared, even if we would not stoop to lows such as them."

"Fire Country. We must go to Fire Country. The Feudal Lord there is not as corrupt as the others and he would allow Bloodline Users to settle down." Madara slowly got back to his feet and faced the two brothers. "Now, time should not be wasted, what say you?"

One of the guards who had seen Madara's Doujutsu when it was activated decided to give his own opinion. "We cannot trust them. Whatever trick he used on his eyes is not normal. I feet it's been tampered with. It almost felt demonic."

"It is as you said. I was born with a deficiency in my eyes which was cured shortly before I found my wife. I am most appreciative of the fox demon that helped me. It is a shame that my brother is no longer here with me. These eyes were the fruits of both our labor."

Hashirama looked at Madara in shock. "The Kyubi no Yoko gave you those eyes? That such a powerful demon would even think of helping you." Hashirama turned to look at the small group of gathered people. "We will need to discuss your offer," he declared as he started walking away.

"But there isn't time. And my family is still in. . . ." Madara quickly dodged all of the projectiles that were thrown at him.

"We will find you when we are ready. You would do well not to return here," announced Kenyu, leaving Madara with the round wooden prison that encased his family. Madara sighed activating the perfected form of his Doujutsu. He would have to thank his brother for his eyes if he ever met him in the afterlife. He proceeded to free his family from their prison.

After deliberating, the Senju clan agreed to relocate and settle down with the Uchiha clan in a remote area of Fire Country. The Feudal Lord accepted their proposal to establish a Hidden Village in his lands, and over the next few years, the village was slowly taking shape. Clans from nearby areas made their way to this new village, which seemed to be accepting of clans with Bloodlines. The Senju clan and the Uchiha clan were prominent during construction time. They hadn't decided on how the village would be ruled yet, but Hashirama and Madara were both highly looked up to, and there was little doubt that the village would be ruled by one of the two. Unfortunately, there were some tense moments during the construction, one of which almost destroyed the village which was still not completed.

The Hyuga clan had heard of the development of the new village and was heading towards Fire Country to relocate there. Hashirama, who was a lot more open now that his "family" had increased in size, was willing to allow them entry, but Madara, who still harbored a grudge, would not. Neither could persuade the other to see their way. Mere days before the Hyuga were to arrive, Madara left the village to give them a piece of his mind, but he was cornered by Hashirama. In the resulting fight, the earth was torn asunder, and people could feel the chakra signatures of the two men for a long ways off. The two fighters were evenly matched, but things took a turn for the worse, when Madara used his Doujutsu to possess the Kyubi no Yoko, who was attracted to the battlegrounds by the chakra signatures to help in his attack. This was not enough to beat Hashirama who was strong enough to suppress the Kyubi's chakra, and when Madara lost, Hashirama told Madara never to come back. To think that a person would go so far for revenge, he had no place in a village which was supposed to be a haven to those Bloodline clans who had harbored anger and resentment that they had not earned. Hopefully his taint had not been passed on to his family, who would be allowed to stay. Madara was not heard from for a very long time.

When the new village was completed, the Feudal Lord came to christen the village. They named it Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. It was named this in honor of the Mokuton ability which shaped the village and provided the raw material for the construction of the village. Hashirama was declared the founding Hokage. As time passed, the other Hidden Villages would wage war with others to establish their power over the other villages. In later years Hashirama found it ironic that he hadn't accepted Madara's offer readily. Even if there were deaths at war, the combined forces were enough to keep an entire clan from dying out.

In later years, the remaining members of the founding Senju clan were assassinated just like Hashirama and Kenyu's dad were leaving only Hashirama's daughter, who married out of the family, and was not proficient with Mokuton. With the death of the First and Second, the village flourished under the Third and Fourth Hokages and further established Konoha as the strongest Hidden Village when they won the Third Great Shinobi War. On one fateful night, the Fourth gave his life to seal away the Kyubi no Yoko who stormed the village one cold night in October. The Third still being alive, he rallied his village and they would press forward.


	2. Chapter 2: Itachi Uchiha

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Two: Itachi Uchiha

Itachi Uchiha was always smart for his age. His parents praised him as a prodigy. Everything came easy to him. When he was five, the Kyubi had attacked. Although he was young, he could remember the Fourth. The Fourth's accomplishments were great, and many. Itachi looked up to him. Needless to say, when the Fourth died because of his seal, Itachi strove to outdo him.

At age four, Itachi had already seen a lot of war and fighting. This had had a negative effect on his personality, and he had adopted a calm and cool demeanor, burying his emotions behind a mask that was impressive for one so young. That war was won, thanks in great part to Konoha's Yellow Flash, the future Fourth Hokage. Itachi remembered when he was young that he wanted to help, but he was unable to contribute anything because he was too young. He tried to persuade his parents to allow him early entry into the ninja academy, but his parents protested. After the Kyubi attack, Itachi eventually got them to change their minds. Itachi, the youngest individual admitted to the ninja academy in twenty years, save Kakashi Hatake, completed a sequence of classes and basic material that generally took four years to complete in two years. His teachers had nothing bad to say about him, and were impressed with his dedication. After passing his Genin test with perfect marks, he was assigned his Genin team. His teammates were Yugao Uzuki and Hayate Gekko.

Progress was slow for their group, because none of them had similar strengths. Of their graduating year, Itachi was the oddball, due to his being younger, yet better than most others in the class, and his utter obsession with seals. He also had a potent bloodline that he had yet to activate.

Yugao was sleek and quiet. If Itachi didn't know that she was just a Genin, Itachi would have guessed her to be at least Chunin. She had a knack for appearing and disappearing, which accounted for how she already knew how to use the Body Flicker, thanks to her father. It was very hard to keep track of her, and she seemed like a Wind Spirit of some sort, trapped in human form, because of the amount of grace with which she moved. She wanted to surpass the ability of her father and be an assassin of the highest caliber.

Hayate had his swords. His parents were retired Nin and had since founded the only Teppan Yaki eatery in Konoha. People would come from all over to watch the two chefs prepare their orders with their unique and individual displays of swordsmanship. At a young age, Hayate showed a fascination with weapons, just like his parents. If asked a question on his academy studies, he would not be able to answer with much proficiency unless the question involved weaponry in some way shape or form. When he was ten, he went and bought his own double swords. It cost him everything he had, but he was happy with his purchase. At his request, his first weapons, a matching katana and short sword, were forged from a metal that was dyed black, and the hilts were embedded with bronze. He was not very good at using the weapons, but he made up for it with his kunai use.

They only went on missions sparingly, due to Itachi's young age. After Konoha's victory in the Third Great Shinobi War, a memorial was erected near one of the training grounds. It was clear just how many names were engraved onto the rock. All those who had been lost in the war, but sadly could not be dwelled on. They had to focus on the now, and at that moment, they had to increase the number of Shinobi to replace those they lost. Due to the circumstances, and to maintain Konoha's reputation, they had temporarily reassigned mission rank qualifications. D-rank missions were assigned to Academy Students so as to give them field experience before they became Genin. When they graduated, their experience would enable them to perform higher rank missions enabling them to achieve the necessary qualifications for the Chunin Exams. Many of them would be Chunin ready very quickly, unfortunately, the number of times the Exams were held was scaled back, because the various villages were attempting to come up with a new arrangement for the Exam. The assignment of C-Rank missions to Genin meant that Genin teams, like Itachi's, needed to work well together, and unfortunately, despite all of their talent, they did not.

After having been a Genin for a year, Itachi and his team were assigned a mission. Their Sensei was being assigned his own missions on occasion, and their team was supposed to accomplish the assignment by themselves. It was an assassination mission of a political figurehead in Rock. He was speaking of revenge against the Yellow Flash, and that would easily lead to war again. They were to prevent the threat of war at all costs. They needed to keep it quiet, and make it appear natural. Nobody in Rock would suspect children, and their group was poised to fool anybody into thinking they weren't actual ninjas. Hayate, Yugao, and Itachi made it to the target village without trouble. How suspicious would two thirteen-year-olds and an eight year old look?

Arriving in Rock, the group stopped for lunch. Rather than converse openly about their plans, they resorted to using the method of communication they had developed over the year. To the casual observer, it just seemed they were having lunch. The target lived in a large mansion. There were guards everywhere. If they were to succeed without implicating the Fire Country, it had to appear natural. If a guard were killed, an investigation would be launched, to look into it. The only way, it seemed would be to make it look like suicide, but Itachi argued that a person of sound mind, and no reason to commit suicide would be just as suspicious. It was decided to use a Genjutsu, which meant that Itachi, who was the most proficient with Genjutsu on the team needed to go. Yugao would accompany him, so that they could use the Body Flicker to avoid detection. Hayate wanted to go along, but Yugao could only use the Body Flicker on herself, and it was difficult to use it with even one additional person, so he had to stay. They decided that Hayate would prepare their escape plan. He suggested that they not leave immediately, because it might draw attention if somebody died, and three people started running away. They would strike at nightfall, and then leave at daybreak, saying that they were only passing through and needed supplies and rest to continue their trip. To make their story more convincing, they went to various stores after their meal, to buy supplies.

At nightfall, Yugao and Itachi snuck into the target's mansion. They used the Body Flicker sparingly, because they didn't want to leave much of a trace of their being there. A Jonin could sense the Chakra Signature of the move, and they didn't want to be noticed. They moved slowly towards the room of their target, avoiding the patrols. The door was closed, and forced entry would be too obvious. Itachi used a Transformation Jutsu, and took on the form of one of the maids that they had avoided, trying to use a minimal amount of Chakra. He looked at himself in disgust and openly declared that he would never take the guise of a woman again. When he finally felt comfortable enough to move, he knocked on the door. When the target opened the door he asked if he would be allowed in, and quickly came up with a story, hoping that he would believe it. He had left his supplies behind when he was cleaning the area earlier, and he had not been able to return to finish up until now. Yugao used the moment of confusion to Body Flicker into the room, through the gap in the door and hide. The target grudgingly let them in, although expressing that he was under the impression that somebody else did the cleaning. As soon as the door was closed, Itachi started using his Genjutsu, thankful that such Jutsu left little if no Chakra Signature. It took a few moments, but the target was trapped, and Itachi immediately shed his wretched disguise.

Itachi immediately proceeded with the plan. He could not take over the target's mind, so he needed to convince the target to do what he wanted. Conjuring up an illusion that the room was on fire, he forced the target to call for two guards. When they arrived Itachi disguised the guards as bandits, let the "flames" die out, and with a bit of suggestive thinking, was able to convince him to attack with the weapon he kept by his bed. Trapping one of the other guards in another Genjutsu, he tapped suppressed memories and convinced him to attack his fellow guard.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked the guard while cradling his injured and bleeding arm.

"I've had enough of this. This idiot here wants to bring war back to us. I don't know about you, but I'd rather kill him and keep the peace, even if it means that I will be imprisoned," was the reply. It took very little convincing on Itachi's part to prompt this speech. "I'll kill him, and then I'll kill myself!"

"No! Wait!"

But it was too late. The guard under the influence of the Genjutsu ran up at high speed to the target, and quickly brought his blade down, severing the target's right arm at the elbow, rendering him unable to wield his weapon. "I may not have been very attentive when I went to the Ninja Academy, but at least I paid enough attention to do this!" And with that, he grabbed the target's left hand, drawing an immense amount of his chakra out through the contact point.

The Chakra drain canceled out the Genjutsu on the target, who looked at his guard. "You came," he managed to spit out weakly.

The guard took all of his chakra, and the chakra he just absorbed, and quickly separated it from its neutral state, into equal quantities of positively and negatively charged Chakra. Yugao Body Flickered right next to Itachi, grabbed him, and immediately performed another Body Flicker, propelling him out of the window. The other guard realized what was happening, and dove for the room's exit, slamming the thick doors behind him. "DIE," screamed the guard, and released the oppositely charged Chakras which came crashing together. Seconds later, an enormous explosion was heard in the room, as the two Chakra types made contact, and annihilated each other, as well as any other Chakra Signatures in the room.

"I'm going to have to learn that trick," exclaimed Itachi in Yugao's grip. Yugao just rolled her eyes. They got to their hotel room in thirty minutes, where Hayate was ready to grill them about how an explosion of that magnitude was supposed to be discreet, and Itachi replied by saying that the guard actually wanted to do that, that he just needed a bit of suggestion. In the morning, they got up at daybreak and got ready to leave. Just as they got past the gates, a team of Rock Chunin approached them. Yugao had forgotten to remove her headband, and the Chunin had recognized it. They saw them as an easy way to vent their frustrations about their failure in the war. Kicking into the ground, they unearthed large stones and using their Chakra, flung them into the unsuspecting Genin. Hayate tried to defend Yugao and pushed her out of the way, taking a hit from a particularly large stone right in the chest. Itachi leapt in front of the pair, both of whom were injured, Yugao with various bruises, Hayate, unconscious and spitting up blood. As the stones rained down on them, Itachi could feel the pain permeate throughout his body. Just as he was about to give up, and recognize failure, he realized that he could track the stones better. Grabbing Hayate's short sword he deflected the remaining stones, until he could no longer move, and was hit in the shoulder. Itachi went flying through three trees and came to a stop. The Stone Nin laughed at them. "Killing weaklings like you will not show that we are better than you. Next time a Konoha Nin comes through here, make sure that they are a challenge. We will prove that we are better than you."

Yugao being the only one who was conscious carried Hayate over to where Itachi had landed and quickly set up camp. She had seen Itachi's eyes when he turned and grabbed Hayate's sword. She wondered if he even realized that he had activated his bloodline. When Itachi woke up, he and Yugao broke camp, and with Hayate on Yugao's back, making deep wheezing noises, they made their way back to Fire Country.

The next few years were uneventful. The Uchiha clan praised Itachi for activating his bloodline at such a young age. Itachi's team had finally made Chunin, but Hayate's wheezing never really went away, and he had developed a chronic cough. Hayate and Yugao had hooked up, and a few years after that, Itachi and Yugao had been drafted by ANBU. Itachi's father had even pulled a few strings and had Itachi promoted to the rank of ANBU Captain. For a young boy of thirteen to acquire such a rank was astonishing to say the least. Everything was going well until the night his older cousin Shisui asked him to meet with him. They were best friends, and had known each other since childhood. As soon as Itachi entered the room, Shisui swung a sword at him. Itachi's quick reflexes kicked in, and he used his forearm guards to block the blade. Grabbing Shisui's sword arm, he twisted it and tucked it behind his back, pinning him against the wall.

"Impressive, Itachi. Most impressive. I see it will not be as easy as I thought, but mark my words, I will kill you and obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan." Shisui made hand signs with his left hand, and used his signature move, the Body Flicker and escaped Itachi's grip. He also used Fire Element Chakra in the move, burning Itachi's hands and arms. While Itachi recoiled from the pain, he heard Shisui's voice again. "Fire Release: Mass Flamethrower Jutsu." Itachi made a run for the door as fireballs started flying at him. He knew that Shisui was using a Body Flicker to move before he fired each one, and desperately tried to keep moving. One hit would finish him easily. A fireball crashed into the door, cutting him off. "Shadow Clone Jutsu," whispered Itachi. He staggered at the amount of chakra that was torn from him to divide between him and the clones. The two clones tackled the door, and created an opening for the real Itachi to escape through. He used a Body Flicker to propel himself through the opening, but because he lost his concentration, he overshot and reappeared in the river nearby. Before his cousin could get there, he dispelled the old shadow clones. Bracing himself, he performed the Shadow Clone Jutsu again, and winced as half of his remaining Chakra was split between them. The real Itachi performed a Body Replacement with a leaf in a nearby tree. Shisui appeared next to the Itachi Clone in a blaze of fire. He grabbed the Itachi clone by the collar and pushed him into a tree. The real Itachi focused his Chakra and separated the Chakras that composed his clone, just like he remembered from the mission when he was eight. He smirked as he thought to himself, 'I told Yugao I would learn this trick.' Bracing himself against his branch, he released his hold of the Chakra and it came crashing together. The resulting explosion tore Shisui apart. Itachi winced as the memories of the clone dying flooded his mind, and then fell to his knees as he realized that he had just killed a part of his family, one of his best friends. His eyes were burning. Similar to how his Sharingan had evolved, but much more painful. It felt like the majority of his remaining Chakra was burning his eyes from the inside out.

A voice from behind Itachi startled him. "Wow. That looked intense. It must have hurt."

Regaining his composure, Itachi replied. "No, it was only a clone."

"I was not talking about the clone."

Itachi looked at the figure behind him. He was too tired to respond, or think about what the figure was talking about. "The other Uchiha's will be here soon. I suppose it's a good thing that the Chakra Suppressing Seals around the Manor blocked the Chakra Signature from the rest of the village."

"I agree. I'll have to leave quickly."

Itachi just panted, trying to catch his breath.

When the other Uchiha's arrived on the scene, only glowing red Mangekyo Sharingan eyes glowing in the dark, and a smile that promised intense pain remained.


	3. Chapter 3: Massacre

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Three: Massacre

Itachi, Itachi, Itachi. Everything that was going wrong was because of Itachi. Everyone in the Uchiha clan was just raving over the prodigy of prodigies, Itachi Uchiha, and Sasuke was sick of it. By the time Sasuke could walk, Itachi had graduated. By the time Sasuke mustered up enough courage to sneak into Itachi's room and steal some of his shuriken and kunai to practice with, Itachi activated his Sharingan. When he was five, Itachi, who had enrolled in the academy at the same age, was a Chunin. Meanwhile, his parents wouldn't allow him to enroll. His dad wouldn't even teach him any Elemental Jutsu, the way he taught his older brother. When Sasuke was seven, his brother was an ANBU Captain. When Sasuke was eight, their cousin tried to kill Itachi, Itachi wasn't really the same. He stopped spending time around the house. It was like he was either at the ANBU Headquarters, or he was on a mission

While Sasuke was upset that his brother wasn't around anymore, he didn't have time to worry about it. His dad had finally taken an interest in him, and had decided to teach Sasuke the Fire Release: Grand Fireball, or, as it turned out in Sasuke's case, just a Fireball. It was very difficult for him, but he wouldn't give up. The move was considered a coming of age Jutsu, and all of the members of the Uchiha clan could perform it. At age eight, Sasuke was finally allowed to enroll in the Ninja Academy. There were many other students from prominent families in his year, but that didn't matter to him. He was going to graduate at the top of his class, just like Itachi did, and that meant that he had to out-perform everybody in that room.

They were all, as of that moment his rivals. Mere measuring sticks with which to compare his growth. _Just wait_, he thought. _I'm even going to activate my Sharingan before I graduate from this academy_. So it was with that mindset that he would go to the Academy, everyday. He would get there an hour early, stay through every class, push himself hard through any sparring exercise, and leave two hours after classes ended, every single day. There was only one other person who could annoy him as much as his brother, and it was that Naruto boy.

While he was usually in a good mood, nobody could expect what to see from him. He would be performing at the top of the class, and he would be all smiles, and energy on one day, and the next, he would arrive, sit in the back of the classroom with bruises and sometimes remnants of worse injuries and try not to draw attention. At first he was one of the top of the class, similar to Sasuke, and Sasuke seriously considered practicing with him, so that he could match his brother's strength. But at least, once a month, ANBU would come to the classroom, and take Naruto away, and while any person with strong will would resist change, a person's will is only so strong, and eventually, after he returned to class, sometimes after missing for three or more days, Naruto started slipping. Nobody really knew what happened when ANBU took him away, and nobody really understood why he was always injured. Most parents had warned their kids away from him, and they were not about to gather their courage and ask him.

Needless to say, after Naruto stopped performing at his level, Sasuke did not want anything to do with him anymore. He concluded that Naruto, along with most others in that room, would only slow him down, and hinder his efforts to be as good if not better than his brother. At home, Sasuke's mother and father were getting upset at the lack of Itachi's presence. He had been assigned an honorary position on the Uchiha Clan Council, and when he was not around, it made it difficult for decisions to be made. The Clan Council was filled with squabbling members, who seemed more interested in flashing Sharingan eyes at each other in an attempt at intimidation, and Itachi was one of the few with a level head. His absence was causing the clan to suffer, and this greatly angered Sasuke and Itachi's dad.

It wouldn't matter either way. When Sasuke came home the next week, it really didn't matter anymore. Everywhere he looked, there were dead Uchiha. Most of them looked as if they were not fighting when they fell. _As bad as this is, as long as Mom, Dad, and Itachi are okay, everything will be fine_. Sasuke tried to look at this analytically, trying to figure out what had happened. _For the clan to be taken by surprise, that only can mean assassination, or betrayal. Nobody I know in the clan would even be capable of this, and definitely nobody would destroy the clan_. The thought process was giving him a headache. Snatching one of the kunai he pilfered from Itachi, he grinned. Whoever it was that did this, Itachi would not know about it. He could finally prove himself. When his dad would talk about this horrible night, he would say, "and then Sasuke countered the enemies, killing them all, and allowing the Clan to survive. It was a great night for our Clan." The grin vanished from his face. And after the speech, which had so much of a chance of actually happening, the family would go to the marketplace and buy milk and cookies. It would never happen.

Slowly stepping forward, Sasuke tried to remember all the material that their teacher Iruka ever mentioned about finding an unknown enemy. _Ok Sasuke. Just breathe. Don't underestimate or make any guesses about the target. Try to figure out what he can do_. "That's right; you don't want to underestimate your opponent. After all, underestimating your opponent will get you killed. Isn't that right, Brother?"

Sasuke turned to the figure who spoke. "Itachi?" _Oh, thank god. My brother is safe_. "No, you're not my brother, who are you?"

"Of course I'm your brother. Just how many people do you know who call you brother, and have Sharingan eyes?" There was a flash of red from the figure's eyes, and a quick wave of killing intent.

"You don't look like my brother."

"Oh, I don't look like your brother? I have a lesson for you kid, Transformation. Maybe you've heard of it. They teach you the move in the Academy, but leave you to come up with your own applications. I can make myself look like anything I want." He laughed. "You know, the look on your face, it's priceless. Nobody else in this Clan gave me quite a look like yours, when I started killing them all."

"You didn't kill them all. You would never do this to me or our family." He threw the kunai at his brother in an attempt to intimidate him. In response, his brother drew five kunai, throwing them together. One intercepted the incoming blade, knocking it out of the air, the others continued on their path, striking Sasuke into a tree. While not injured, he was pinned very well. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am, Sasuke. Now, this might hurt a bit." His brother leaned in. "Your mother and father are not dead. Not yet, anyways." Using a Body Flicker he was gone.

Something inside of Sasuke snapped. The kunai were embedded deep into the tree, but he couldn't stay here. His murderous brother was going to kill his Mom and Dad. Pulling with all of his strength, he heard tearing fabric. His arms were free. Leaning over he grasped one of the knives pinning his leg and pulled it out of the tree, freeing his right leg and then proceeded to kick the knife pinning his other leg with enough force that the blade snapped on impact. Sasuke ran as fast as he could to the main house. He broke down the first door, not slowing down in the slightest. He followed the paths in the house to the master bedroom, and kicked the door down. Furniture, bed, window open; Sasuke observed all of these and his face paled as he looked at the bed. There were signs of a struggle, and both his mother and father were dead, in a very bloody fashion.

"You know, they were very happy that I had finally come home. I have the feeling that your mother and father would have been proud of my use of these Sharingan eyes."

Crying, Sasuke gritted his words through his teeth. "Stop calling them my mom and dad, as if they weren't yours parents too, you murderer."

"Oh, my dear Sasuke, surely you don't think that the man who killed the entire Uchiha Clan would be allowed to call any of its former members as if they were his own family. Don't worry, I did you a favor. They were holding you back. If you want true power, you don't let somebody give it to you. You step up and take it. So unless you want me to kill you, too, stand up, and don't allow me to take your true power."

Sasuke didn't move. He couldn't. He struggled to look up at his brother, who looked back at him, as if disappointed. His eyes flashed red, and than the three tomoe merged to form a new shape. "I couldn't kill someone with such pathetic eyes. I'll kill your spirit, and then when you're ready, I will consider taking true power from you." With that, Sasuke's world went red and black.


	4. Chapter 4: Interrogation

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Four: Interrogation

Ibiki Morino sighed. It was going to be a long day. The ANBU Black Ops had just delivered an unconscious Sasuke Uchiha to him. The last Uchiha, as he had been come to be known, had been unconscious for a week and people wanted to know what had actually happened that night. Nobody in their village actually knew what had happened. All they knew was that one day, there was a very strong and prominent clan and the next, there was seemingly a single member remaining, unconscious, and everybody wanted to know what was going on. On top of that, Ibiki was scheduled to interrogate one Naruto Uzumaki, as ordered by the Council every time he seemed to express himself and become strong, and all of the other responsibilities assigned to the Head of ANBU's Torture and Interrogation Department, but first he had to deal with the Uchiha.

The Doctors who hadn't been able to wake him had ruled out Chakra Exhaustion after the third day. It simply did not take that long for a young Academy student to recover his Chakra. There was a foreign Chakra in his system, and it was focused on his mind, which suggested a Genjutsu, but it had not dissipated, and none of their specialists could break the 'Genjutsu,' if one could call it that. It definitely seemed to do more then a regular Genjutsu. All of the Doctors efforts had been in vain, so they had carted the boy to the foremost authority on the mind: Ibiki. Ever since he was a young Yamanaka, when he was taught the first family Jutsu designed to manipulate the minds of others from his father, he had loved to learn about the mind. When he was recruited by ANBU, Ibiki, like all other ANBU before him, changed his name to better protect his family. As of that moment, he stopped being a Yamanaka, and became a Morino, but he could not, and would not forget about his fascination with the mind.

As the foremost expert on hand about how the mind worked, he was given his assignment. Wake the Uchiha, and debrief him. He smiled when he read the word debrief. To Ibiki, all that debrief meant was to get an answer out of the suspect, and the question that they all wanted answered was going to influence Sasuke's life dramatically. Was he, or was he not, responsible for the massacre? No other witnesses were available to debrief, so it came down to this boy. Using a simple set of hand seals, Ibiki projected his mind onto Sasuke's, but was blocked by the 'Genjutsu.' _Well, that's going to be annoying. I guess I'll have to break this thing before I can get any answers_. But that would be easier said than done. The mind was a very complex system, and it would be very easy to hurt a person, permanently. Not even Tsunade would be able to fix him without some effort or caution, so he would have to tread carefully. Fortunately, Ibiki had had some practice with this kind of thing in recent times. Every time that Naruto was brought before him, he would resist. He had made it rather difficult in recent times for Ibiki to start doing anything, but he relished a challenge, and was able to break through each time, and this time was no different.

Seven hours later, Ibiki finally got through. _Whoever did this to him, definitely knew what they were doing. It seems familiar for some reason though_. That had been challenging, but not as bad as the mental blocks that Naruto had been developing. Ibiki actually felt bad for Naruto. He was just a kid, after all. Whenever another child excelled in class, or figured out how to do a Jutsu properly, or put in the shear amount of effort that Naruto did, they were praised, but Naruto was alone, and every time that he excelled, the Council wanted him inspected and his will broken so that he would not be dangerous. Now that he was in, Ibiki continued his investigation. Finding the anchor points for the 'Genjutsu,' he severed them and released its hold on Sasuke. _Now that that's done, he'll wake up, eventually. And now I have to make sure that there aren't any memory-seals_. Ibiki put a hand over Sasuke's face and let a surge of his own Chakra flow through Sasuke's head, overloading and breaking any memory seals that were present. Hopefully, there weren't any seals that were placed by someone with more or stronger Chakra than himself. Ibiki withdrew his Chakra, and requested a nurse to check him. The nurse, Asuka, came into the room to begin a check-up on the boy, while Ibiki took a well deserved break.

Later, Ibiki was writing down the results of his debriefing and the results of his Jutsu on the mission report. He had concluded that Sasuke, like the other Uchihas had been a victim. He had been at school in the morning he did extra training after class he went home, there was some sort of an altercation between himself and somebody who referred to himself as his brother, and Sasuke lost. Come to think of it, Ibiki could not remember seeing Itachi since the massacre, which in of itself was suspicious. Now he would have to deal with Naruto. The sooner he did, the sooner Naruto could be released back into society. Not that that was a good option either. The boy was hated out there. Ibiki approached the room that Naruto was being held in. ANBU was not exactly courteous with the holding room. Most of them had chairs, lighting, and a few other furnishings that had been approved by previous ANBU Captains so as to not assist the occupant with their escape.

Ibiki opened the door. As he expected, the walls were bare, there was no furniture, and as evidenced by Naruto who cringed and shied away into the furthest corner, there was no light. Ibiki felt bad for the boy. Not even nine and he had suffered to an extent that some adult ninjas never had. Ibiki knew that the decisions regarding Naruto were governed by fear, but he still had to listen to them. If he had his way, they would leave him alone until Naruto actually performed a hostile act, which was more likely to occur, if they continued to drive him down the road they had set in front of him. Already, Ibiki could tell the difference in the boy. There was no smile, and he had a look in his eyes that clearly displayed that he knew there was no resisting the inevitable. The first time that Naruto had been brought before him, he was pleasant and polite. He asked why he was there, and in response, Ibiki started the procedure, so that he could end it quickly. The second time, as soon as Naruto saw Ibiki, he resisted. Pulling a kunai from somewhere that the ANBU had not been able to find when they brought him in, he hid behind the weapon and warned Ibiki away. Of course, Ibiki quickly got past the knife and proceeded. Over time, the boy impressed Ibiki with his will, and cunning. Despite ANBU searching Naruto every time they seized him, he seemed to be always able to do something to resist, the earlier ones being quite creative, like the hidden weaponry from the earlier sessions, but the most recent attempts were clearly being used in desperation, such as the Chakra Shield Seal that he fashioned with his own blood. Ibiki had been quite impressed with that Shield, as it had been very difficult for him to break through.

"I know, I know, Mr. ANBU. Stand up straight, no talking, and just wait until it's over. Clearly I can't do anything other than slow you down, so just get this over with, so I can go home and recover from whatever Yamanaka probe it is you use on me." That stopped Ibiki in his tracks. This was nothing like the Naruto that he knew. "I just hope that blonde girl in class doesn't turn out like you. At least she seems capable of talking, unlike you." Ibiki tried to cover his shock and made towards the boy. _There's no way he knows. He's guessing_. "And no, it's not a guess. I know you're a Yamanaka, and I feel really bad for your niece in my class, because you're just awful." Ibiki kept getting closer and closer. Naruto's expression quickly changed, as if he was trying to hush somebody. "Please, don't make him angry. Maybe he won't see me." Naruto threw his arms up into the air. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Stay away from us, don't hurt us or I'll throw instant Ramen at you. Do you think you could give me some water first though? Maybe I can use one of the Fire Elemental Jutsu I don't know so that I can heat the water and scald you, or maybe I can just hurt you, or somebody else, like he never has. You and I both know he doesn't deserve any of this." Ibiki didn't know how to react. Then it seemed that Naruto just fell onto his knees. "Just please don't hurt me. I just want to be a good ninja." Naruto tried his best to smile. "You know I'll be Hokage, and then everything will be all right." Standing up, Naruto strode over to the wall, and punched right through it. Naruto laughed. "As if asking him not to hurt you will accomplish anything. That's the way the weak act. Begging for mercy? It's pathetic, and I will not let you sully our position." "Just go away."

Ibiki just stared at the boy. It would seem that he had reached his limit. He was arguing with himself, and he didn't know what to do with him. "Is Mr. ANBU going to actually do anything? Do us both a favor. Either do what you came here to do, or get the hell out. I just might decide to actually retaliate, and I promise you, it won't be pretty." Ibiki made a decision. He was an ANBU, and he would discuss this with the Third. Before he could do that, he had to prevent Naruto's condition from getting worse. Performing hand signs, he began to project his mind onto Naruto's. Unfortunately for Ibiki, the mental blocks that Naruto had developed flared up, and this time, there was a flare of red Chakra surrounding the boy which resulted in him being thrown across the room, and into the opposite wall. Naruto looked over at Ibiki with a smile on his face, but it was definitely not a happy one. "Oh, you're going to have to do much better than that, Mr. ANBU. Didn't I already tell you? He doesn't deserve this. Now, about that choice I gave you, it wasn't really a choice. You will get out of here, or we will not be responsible for what happens." Naruto's face suddenly became concerned. "What are you doing? We can't do this to him."

_I have to get him while he's distracted_. Ibiki drew a kunai and threw it at the arguing boy. Naruto quickly stopped the argument and performed three quick hand signs. "Lightning Release: Lightning Blast." It was a low level Lightning technique, but the sheer amount of Chakra fueled into it made the move very strong. The lightning Jutsu struck the flying weapon, and with the intense amount of heat from the strike melted it and shot scalding metal in all directions. _Shit, I might need some help. How does he know that move_? Ibiki flared his Chakra in an attempt to signal Anko to come help him. Moments later, she arrived grumbling, "it's about time something happened. I've been so bored."

"So glad I could help you relieve your boredom, now help me hold him down."

"What? Is that it? Ugh, I'm going home." She turned to leave.

Ibiki quickly pushed her away as a shuriken sailed through the air towards him. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu," said Naruto, and the single shuriken suddenly became twenty. Ibiki quickly dove out of the way of the projectiles, while Anko used a variant of an Earth Element Jutsu and twisted into the ground, out of harms way. _Crap. The kid went and pissed her off. This is not good_. Backing away into a corner, Ibiki performed the seals for the same Jutsu he tried unsuccessfully to use on Naruto before. Suddenly Anko burst out of the ground and started using her personalized Taijutsu style on him. Used in conjunction with her Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, she got through his defense, bound him up with snakes, and hit him in the back of the neck, knocking him out cold, all in less than thirty seconds.

Ibiki performed his Jutsu, and started working on the mental blocks. They were extremely strong, even though Naruto was unconscious. Anko strolled over to her fallen comrade. "True ninja would never allow themselves to be vulnerable, not even in front of their friends." Anko reached into the pocket of Ibiki's trench coat, and retrieved the man's wallet. "Don't worry, Ibiki," she continued as she perused the pilfered wallet, and then throwing it back at the still body of its owner. Anko turned to leave. "I'll only take enough for two boxes of dango."

--

A/N: I have a general idea of where I want this story to go, but if any of you have ideas to incorporate into the story, or if you think that I'm making the original characters act too much out of character, please let me know so that I can try to fix it. Please also let me know if the narrative is being too confusing, switching the point of view for each chapter. This is my first work, and I would like for it to be well received. Any advice or constructive criticism would be appreciated. I hope you like it so far.


	5. Chapter 5: Solution

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Five: Solution

Ibiki and an extremely unhappy Anko sat across from an exasperated Third Hokage. "Anko, what did you do to him?"

"Me? Come on Old Man Hokage. I barely even touched the kid. I was only there because he," she jerked her thumb at Ibiki, "signaled me that something exciting was going to happen. And it was a total let down." Anko turned to face Ibiki. "Next time you ask for my help, at least make it challenging."

"When did you start sounding like a Summoned Creature, Anko? Honestly, you're beginning to sound like Manda."

The Third took a much needed puff on his pipe. These two honestly bickered like a married couple, and he was tired of it. "Ibiki, what happened with the boy?"

He's reached his limit. I apologize for not telling you sooner, but the Council has interfered with the boy's performance at the academy. They have had him removed and given an incentive to not perform better than his classmates."

"I assumed something like this was happening. From time to time, the members of the Council would have smug looks on their faces when they were in session. Please continue."

"When I entered his cell to complete my assignment, the boy was arguing with himself." The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "There were two distinct personalities that he expressed. There may be other personalities that he did not exhibit in this instance. Of course, if left unchecked, he could also develop more personalities. Of the two presently revealed personalities, one was desperately trying to hide and would occasionally try to persuade the other personality to behave rationally." Ibiki looked at the boy, lying on a small couch in the office, still bound in whatever Anko had hit him with. "The other personality was attempting to save the two of them, stating reasons why we should be unable to touch him, ascertaining my true identity and family, and going so far as to go on the offensive so that it could defend themselves. He demonstrated proficiency with Elemental Chakra use that surpasses some Chunin. I think that the second personality might be somewhat under the influence of the Kyubi. If it were not for the problems in his life, that boy could become strong."

Anko sitting in her chair fidgeting for the last five minutes had had enough. As much as she hated her previous mentor, she could not just throw away all of the intensive training that he had drilled into her. Staying still was not productive, and it went against every fiber of her being. "Old Man, why am I still here?" she ground out.

"Consider Anko. You knocked the boy out, and until he is released you must remain here." She raised her hands to perform hand signs and release Naruto, but the Third stopped her. "We will not release him until we can determine what to do with him. I guess you're stuck here." He smiled at her the face she made.

Anko walked over to the boy responsible for her being unable to leave and punched him hard across the face. "It's a good thing that demon can heal you quickly," she grumbled. The Third and Ibiki just sighed at her antics.

"What can we do for him? As long as he progresses the way he has, the Council will continue to demand that we harm him."

"What are you guys going to do with him?" screamed Anko.

"If you're so interested in leaving, perhaps you can suggest something," retorted Ibiki. Anko just sat down in her chair and fumed. "Whatever we do, it needs to get him out of the reach of the Council at least. Hopefully, any attacks done by the civilians will not trigger another episode. Yamanaka Jutsu will only be able to resist a certain amount of stimulus."

"We will have to worry about that later."

"Why don't you pair him with a Jonin Sensei and send him abroad," snapped Anko.

"The only person that I would trust with Naruto right now would be Jiraiya, and I cannot spare him. We have already lost Tsunade, and he is needed to maintain his spy network. The Leaf cannot afford to lose the last active and loyal Sannin."

"Have the ANBU protect him."

"I cannot spare the ANBU to constantly survey somebody who is not a threat. Besides, even though they are supposed to report to me, with Naruto, they may just choose to see things the way the Council does. ANBU have been seen at the scene of many attacks at the boy's expense."

"Send him away."

Ibiki interjected. "Are you sure you're on our side here? Be careful with your suggestions, Anko."

Anko turned on Ibiki. "At least I am making suggestions, and using my brain. You're just sitting there. You haven't even suggested anything."

The Third interrupted before things could get out of hand. "I think that all of these suggestions is overcomplicating the situation. While I agree that his suffering multiple personalities is a bad thing, many ninjas will hide what they are under a mask."

Anko considered the Third's words. "A ninja will only reveal what they want you to know. A true ninja will hide and twist even what they reveal," Anko recited the last words that Orochimaru told her before he left her for dead. Ibiki and the Third looked at her. "It's so simple," she laughed. "The boy is going to be an idiot!"

Ibiki looked back at the Hokage. "I think she has finally snapped." Before his sentence was finished, Anko was standing behind him, her right hand draped loosely around his shoulder. A single large snake peeked out of her sleeve and hissed threateningly.

"Dearest Ibiki, you should be more careful with your choice of words. I have just found out how I can finally leave this room, and you choose to insult me? I'm hurt." Not letting go of Ibiki, she turned to face the Hokage. "As I was saying, the Council feels threatened by Naruto. We need to make them feel at ease. They are worried that a sealed and essentially deceased demon will kill them. A dumb demon is likely to be ignored. An excelling demon will be targeted, as we already know. A smart demon will pretend to be and idiot, and will likely be ignored. If he wears an appropriate mask, they may hate him, but they probably will not see a need to knock him down every time he excels."

"Now that may work, but what would he pretend to be?" The question was asked by Ibiki, still in Anko's grasp.

"Have you NOT been listening to me? He'll be an idiot. He will be a troublemaker and a prankster. This town will have a new reason to fear the boy, but it will definitely NOT be because of the demon. He will remind this village why they hated my brother as a child, and as his child, he will only be as bad, if not worse then his father.

"Anko, I trust that you have not been revealing his lineage? It is not yet time for him to know, and until it is, I want the number of people who know to remain the same."

"Don't worry Lord Hokage, my lips are sealed," she replied with her left hand raised, so that she would not let go of her victim. "We'll need to arrange for a way to keep him from graduating from the Academy early. That kind of circumstance would only prompt the Council to act again."

"I will advise Iruka of the situation," said Ibiki as he proceeded to use a Substitution to get out of Anko's grip and leave.

"What the hell? That pansy Ibiki gets to leave without even suggesting a thing and you just let him go?"

"Anko, how would you go about carrying this out?"

"Oh no, I'm only here because that idiot had me bind him down. Now that you have a solution, I'm leaving." Anko stopped when she felt the killer intent rolling off of her superior. "All right, all right, I'll talk to him." Anko released Naruto's bindings, and shook him roughly. "Wake up, kid." Naruto shot up from his lying position.

Naruto's eyes focused on the woman in front of him. "No. You stay away from me! You hurt him, and you'll hurt me too." He tried to scurry away. She quickly grabbed him.

"Ok kid, listen to me. You are immediately going to start doing what I say, or you will get hurt. First, you will slack in class. You know that Nara boy in your class? Become good friends with him. From now on, you will hide your potential from everyone, until you graduate from the academy. Second, you are going to convince everyone around you that you are an idiot. Confuse your enemies, and they may leave you alone."

"What the hell are you talking about . . .?"

Anko hit him across the face. "You don't interrupt me, kid. Anyways where was I? Right, confuse your enemies. Stick out like a sore thumb. Go out and buy something, hmm." Anko put her head down on her hand to think. "Something orange, and never take it off."

"But I hate orange . . ."

Anko hit him again. "What did I say about interrupting me, kid? Learn to love that color because you will wear it." Anko turned to face the Third. "What does this kid want to be?"

"I'm going to be Hokage!"

Anko looked back at Naruto, trying to figure out how that much volume could come out of him. When she couldn't figure it out, she hit him again. "Don't answer questions that are asked of other people. So you want to be Hokage? And please don't scream out your answer. Just talk normally."

"I'm going to be the greatest Hokage there ever was."

"So you're going to outperform every Hokage that there has been? You should get a move on. When the Fourth was a kid, he was quite the prankster, and could lose Chunin and Jonin when they chased after him. I bet that you would have trouble evading a Genin right now." Anko turned to the Third and gave him a wink.

"I'll show you. I'll be a greater prankster than the Fourth ever was, and I'll be so good that not even the ANBU will be able to catch me!"

"You know, Ibiki and I are both ANBU, and it would seem that you haven't escaped from us." She turned back to look at the boy, only to find the pile of mud that Naruto had substituted himself with. "Damn. I HATE that damned Substitution Jutsu. Two victims use it to escape from me in the same damned hour."

Anko walked back to the Hokage's desk. "If you don't mind, I'm going to leave now. That kid is your problem now, and I trust that you'll handle him." She proceeded to make her exit by jumping out of a window, shattering the glass. The Third sighed as a kunai flew through the remains of the window. There was a note attached to the handle. _I'll let Ibiki handle the cost of having this window replaced, seeing as it was his fault I was stuck in her in the first place_. The Third groaned as he read the note. Elsewhere, Anko was jumping from building to building to her safe haven, known as the Forest of Death. "I swear, I will have that kid's blood for wasting so much of my afternoon. Damn that Ibiki."

--

A/N: Had trouble getting time on the computer. Anko is also extremely difficult to write correctly. Sorry for how long it took, but this was the last chapter before a time-skip to the Academy Graduation, and I wanted it to work properly. I'll try to be quick with the next update. As always, read and review.


	6. Chapter 6: End of a Genius

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Six: End of a Genius

One person, standing in a private training ground, surrounded by practice dummies designed to mimic living opponents. _Breathe in. Let my chakra flow throughout my body, guided by my breath. Breathe out. Focus chakra to my feet. Breathe in. Focus chakra to my hands now. Breathe out. Get in my stance. Breathe in. Focus chakra to my eyes. Perform my hand-signs_. "Byakugan," she exclaimed. Hands dropping to her side, Hinata grabbed the concealed weaponry she had on her person. Her dad had taught her how to hide various weapons in very discrete locations. With one shuriken in each hand, she charged her chakra into the weapons, and threw them at her first two targets. They tore through the dummies, striking and tearing through major arteries. Focusing chakra to her hands, while maintaining her Byakugan, she ran up to a third dummy and quickly swung her leg forward into a sweep knocking over the dummy. As it was falling, her hands whipped forward, striking several points along the dummy's "body." She could not yet see the points she was striking, but on a real person, they would have hurt badly, whether or not she actually hit and closed the chakra points.

Getting up to her feet, she moved to another dummy, throwing her momentum forward. She jumped up as high as she could to kick it in the chin, attempting to use deadly force. The kick landed, twisting the head of the dummy around, but not removing it. Hinata landed on her back and scrunched up her face in frustration. _I should be able to land that properly, or flip, or something. I can't fall down_. She rolled back onto her feet and promptly ran at the dummy, bringing her arm back, and charging it with chakra. She punched right at the center of the target, and a decently sized flash of chakra pulsed through the dummy, reducing it to splinters. Hinata flopped onto the floor, panting hard.

Another figure opened one of the doors that bordered the indoor training ground. It was one of the grounds reserved for the Main Branch to practice on. Her eyes fell on the exhausted five-year-old girl on the floor surrounded by the remains of the dummies she had been working on. Hinata turned as soon as she heard the figure. "Mommy!" she screamed, as she suddenly regained all of her energy and rushed off towards her. She grabbed the only thing she could reach, which happened to be her mother's leg, and encased them in a tight hug. "Whoa, honey. You almost knocked me over."

"You're home! You're home! I missed you."

Making their way over to one of the benches, Hinata and her mother Hiromi sat down. Hinata relinquished her hold on her mother's leg only when they got to the bench so that she could climb up and stand next to her mother on the bench. "Hinata, I was only gone for a week. The Third Hokage had sent me on a mission."

Hinata looked at Hiromi's baby bump in front of her. "But you took my sister away. Before, I could feel her kick. I have to get strong so I can teach her when I'm the big sister." She turned to look at the splintered remains back at the training ground. "Did you see what I did Mommy?"

Hinata was grabbed into a tight hug and was given a kiss on the cheek. "I am proud of you. You have gotten so strong. You're going to be a great big sister." Right then the baby kicked.

Hinata felt it through the hug, and put her hands on her mother's stomach with a huge smile on her face. "Mommy, she kicked! Did you feel her kick?"

Hiromi looked at her daughter and sighed. She was so excited about the prospect of having a little sister. She and Hiashi didn't even know if their second child was going to be a girl, but Hinata had immediately declared that she was, as soon as she figured out that her mother hadn't eaten a cat or something. She laughed inwardly as she remembered when Hinata asked about that. She seemed terrified that it was the pet cat that her parents had apparently forgotten to give her for her birthday. After Hiromi reassured her, Hinata had disappeared. When Hiromi and Hiashi had found her, she was attempting to build a cradle out of various toys and furniture from around the house. Soon after, she had started training herself into the ground. She had the raw power to perform the Gentle Fist, and she had a graceful flexibility that not seen in the family for a long time and now she had a drive to learn it.

Hiromi looked the remnants of the dummies, admiring her daughter's handiwork as Hinata continued to coo at her future sister, making promises about all the things she would do with her as soon as she was old enough, and attempting to come up with a name. "Mommy, what do you think of Hanabi?" If Hinata were to stay on the track that she was on, she would become one of the strongest wielders of the Byakugan in her generation. She and Neji would both become incredible in their own rights. "Hinata, would you help me make dinner?"

"Dinner, Dinner. What are we going to make?"

This is what Hiromi loved about Hinata. She was always happy. Hiromi sometimes wondered what it would take to break her spirit. Honestly, if there was something that could depress her, hopefully they would never find out what it was. As they walked to the kitchen, they talked about what was going on around the house and what they were going to make. After deciding to make curry, Hiromi asked Hinata to prepare the carrots and the rice. Hinata was excited as always because she loved her mother's curry. Working together, the two girls gossiped for hours while preparing the meal. Eventually, Hiashi was also able to get away from the responsibilities to be with his girls. Hinata responded warmly to her father's presence, but she was her mother's daughter and was much closer to her.

-- Time-Skip – One Month

Hiromi and Hinata were now inseparable. One of the Branch Members had let it slip that Hiromi was due in a week or two, and Hinata was not about to let her mother, or her Hanabi out of her sight. She had taken it upon herself to guard her mother from any and all threats. She would have her Byakugan up and running for as long as she could maintain, and then would turn to Hiromi, who would attempt to stoop down, and scoop her up. Hinata would promptly pass out in her arms, as her body attempted to recharge and replenish its chakra. In Hinata's eyes, she was the perfect bodyguard, and she was hoping that if she kept it up, her mother would allow her to watch her little sister when the adults had to settle business.

In the last month, a delegation from Cloud Country started peace talks with the Fire Country and Konoha had been selected as the meeting grounds. The Hyuga always had to be careful with their Bloodline as most other Bloodline Clans did, but in the presence of foreign Ninja they were taking extra precautions. In the hands of a merciless foe, they could cause untold amounts of damage before they could be stopped, if they were stopped at all. Minimizing risk of the Byakugan being lost was one of the main driving forces behind the Curse Seal, and only Main Branch family members did not have them. Hiromi was trusting of people and would usually dismiss the extra guards so that she could spend time with Hinata.

As night fell, a figure kept to the shadows following them. Hinata was completely oblivious, but Hiromi could still sense some of their chakra. She knew that they were not some low-ranking person if they could manage to conceal their Chakra Signature. She turned to face them. "I know you're there. It would be best for you to reveal yourself."

The ninja stepped out. His cover may have been blown, but his target had dispersed the guards leaving a pregnant woman who was in no condition to fight, and a five-year-old little girl. "It would seem that this will prove to be an easy target." He brandished a personalized kunai knife with a jagged edge.

"I'll save you from the bad guy," proclaimed Hinata and prepared to rush forward just like he was one of the training dummies from home. She threw her concealed weaponry at him and he blocked the would-be lethal strikes with his blade, a bored look on his face. She grabbed part of her mom's skirt and whined, "Mommy, he's cheating."

"Hinata, you have to get the others."

"No, Mommy. I'll protect you."

Immediately she ran forward. _Just like the dummies. Hand seals and_. "Byakugan," she yelled as she closed in on the enemy as he just scoffed at her. Hinata started throwing punches and kicks, trying to hit him while he lazily maneuvered around the strikes. Hinata got tired quickly. She stopped her attack and panted hard trying to form words. "Mr. Bad Guy, why are you cheating?" She promptly threw another punch which he caught and twisted behind her back. Hinata lost her focus and her eyes went back to normal.

"It isn't cheating to fight back. If you're protecting your mommy, you're not doing a good job."

"Hinata," called out Hiromi.

Hinata gritted her teeth. _I WILL protect Mommy_. Quickly pulling out a concealed knife with her other hand, she cut across the hand that was holding her own. He lost his concentration and let go of the girl who discarded her dirty weapon and brought to bear chakra powered fists. "You," she punched at his leg and let loose a spike of chakra. He fell to his knee. "Stay," she kicked at his chest and dodged the two punches he threw at her, twirling away from him. "Away," she threw shuriken at him which he struggled to block through his pain and ran forward again, "from my mommy." She used a sweep to knock him onto his back and stood beside him. She grabbed his knife out of his weakened grip. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the blood and plunged the knife straight down.

Hinata heard Hiromi scream and opened her eyes in a panic. She looked down and saw the knife buried up to the handle in her mother's chest. Where here mother was standing lay the enemy ninja, holding his leg and struggling to get to his feet. "Mommy," Hinata asked tentatively. Blood was pouring out of the chest wound and stained Hiromi's lavender clothes. Hinata drew back her hands, slick with Hiromi's blood. Getting a little scared when she didn't get a response, Hinata shook her mother and called out to her again, "mommy!" The guards that had been dismissed earlier in the evening came running as they heard Hiromi's scream. Two of them went after and apprehended the enemy ninja, taking him away so that they could take care of him properly. The third guard, Hizashi, went to where Hinata was still anxiously waiting for a response from her mother. She looked up at her uncle. "Mommy feels cold. Why does she feel cold?"

"Come, Hinata. We need to try and save your little sister."

"Save my sister? This can't be my mommy. I was protecting her. What's wrong with my mommy?"

"Hinata, if we move quickly and get them to the hospital now, we may be able to prevent two deaths tonight."

Hinata started to back away from the lavender-clad cold mass. "No. Mommy's not dead. She can't be dead. It's my sister. She's doing this to her." Hizashi stooped down and picked up Hiromi, moving as fast as he could to the hospital. Hinata started chasing him. "Bring Mommy back to me. She's not dead!"

An hour later, Hiashi was holding his second daughter in his arms. He named her Hanabi, just as Hinata had wanted. She had been delivered by c-section out of her near dead mother who had passed out shortly afterwards. There was nothing the doctors could do for her. The knife had punctured a lung and had also nicked an artery on its way in. If they hadn't saved Hanabi when they did, both the mother and daughter would have been dead. Hinata was sitting on the floor in one of the corners, rocking gently back and forth. She had not cleaned off her hands and they were still stained red. She was muttering to herself over and over, the words sounding like a mantra, as if they were the only things keeping her sane. "Mommy's not dead. I was protecting her. The bad guy must be tricking me. But those guards were taking him away. They wouldn't take Mommy away." She brought her hands up and starting poking her fingertips together as she rocked back and forth.

Hiashi made to move towards Hinata, Hanabi still in her arms. "Congratulations, Hinata. You're finally a big sister."

Hinata stopped rocking and looked at her father. "I'm a big sister? Where's Mommy?"

Hiashi sighed. "Your mother has gone on a little trip. She won't be coming back." Hinata face disappeared into her arms as she burst into tears. "She'll always be watching over you," said Hiashi trying to reassure her.

"No she won't. Mommy's dead, and I killed her. The bad guy tricked me." Hinata finally got a look at her hands and realized that her mother's blood was still on them and was suddenly overcome with nausea. She ran to the bathroom and promptly threw up. When her father found her there a few minutes later, Hinata was washing her hands as if she were possessed. "Daddy, it won't come off. Her blood won't come off of my hands. I can still see it." Hiashi was now officially worried. Hinata had never acted like this before and he didn't know how to react. He came up behind his daughter and gently closed several of her chakra points with his free arm. Hinata slumped onto the floor, unconscious. He carried her to a bed with the same arm and lay her down in it. A Chunin in her early twenties with red eyes was in the other bed in the room.

"What happened to her?"

"A Cloud Nin used a substitution and switched places with her mother when she was protecting her. The killing blow intended for him, hit her mother."

"That's awful. How is she holding up?"

"Not well. She still hasn't accepted what has happened. She was very close to her mother. She says she can still see the blood on her hands." Hiashi sighed. "And because Hiromi was a member of the Main Branch, the council will of course try to have me get rid of her remains to prevent our Bloodline from falling into enemy hands."

A nurse entered into the door. "Lord Hiashi? The Third Hokage has summoned you. He would like to speak with you about the incidents that occurred tonight."

"Now?" asked Hiashi with his hand on his forehead.

"Now," confirmed the nurse.

"Shit. Would you be able to watch her for me, um . . ."

"Kurenai Yuhi," she offered. "I would be honored, Lord Hyuga."

"Thank you." Hiashi turned to leave, but stopped for a moment at the door. "Hinata was so excited to be a big sister. Now I don't think its registering in her head that she has a younger sister." He handed Hanabi to the nurse to take her to the nursery. "I think that now she needs a big sister of her own." Hiashi then left to meet with the Hokage.

Kurenai moved the two beds together so that Hinata could be close to somebody. "Don't worry Hinata. Everything will be ok," she reassured her.

Hinata in her induced sleep curled up and latched onto the warmth in front of her. "Mommy?" she was able to ask from her dreams. "Where did you go?" Kurenai held her tight and tried to use simple Genjutsu to allow Hinata to have pleasant dreams, but Hinata's dreams were stained red, and she could not break through. When Hinata would finally go home, after Hizashi was sent to Cloud as an offering, she would only train her body. Once one of the geniuses of her generation, Hinata now would attempt not to use the Gentle Fist at all. Whenever she was put into a fighting situation, she would see the blood on her hands and would start crying. She wanted to be able to protect, unlike when she was trying to protect her mother, but she couldn't. Soon her father lost patience with her, and she was left with Kurenai for matters regarding her training. When she enrolled in the Academy when she was eight, she had a hard time getting close to people. The old Hinata was dead. The new Hinata was a shell of her old self, excelling only in academics. But at least she had her big sister, Kurenai.

--

A/N: This chapter in the main storyline happened three years before the last chapter. I'm sorry; I know that it's confusing. I'm pretty much coming up with this story as I go, and I really wanted to use this idea for why Hinata turns out to be so shy. I know that Cloud attempted to kidnap her when she was three, but go with it. I don't think this has been used before. I hope you liked it. Remember to review.


	7. Chapter 7: Graduation

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Seven: Graduation

It was a typical day. The sun was high in the sky and cast its rays on the Hidden Leaf Village as five people made their way through the Forest of Death to speak with a particular individual. As Anko opened the door to her tower, she glared daggers at her guests. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" she asked, emphasizing on the word pleasure.

"Your plan regarding that Orange Menace," replied Asuma. "What did you tell that boy?"

"I didn't say anything to him. As I explained to the Hokage four years ago," Anko turned around and started walking further into the building leaving her door wide open, "I wiped my hands of that matter." The small gathering followed after her. They found her seated very casually across one of her sofas in what would most likely be the living room, although it looked like it had been a dungeon at some point in time. "The kid hasn't even done anything to piss me off since he escaped my clutches at that meeting. Now if you guys," here she pointed at Kakashi, Yamato, and Asuma, "have a problem with what that boy has been doing, you can take it up with those other two," she pointed at Ibiki and the Third, "because I sure as hell have nothing to do with it."

"Anko, it was your idea," spat out Ibiki.

"You wouldn't let me leave. And you sure as hell weren't suggesting anything."

"That's hardly the point. As his only remaining family, you should be more involved in his upbringing," said Asuma.

"Your father didn't want me to be affiliated with him. He was worried that those measly little villagers would hate him more back when I tried to be a loving and responsible Auntie." Anko shivered from being forced to utter those last few words. "That kid would be so much stronger if he'd actually been aloud to see me."

"Naruto is already strong," said Yamato.

Anko snorted. "All I told him to do was to pull a few pranks, dress up in orange, and be like that Nara brat's son. He isn't his father. How bad can he be?"

"Have you even seen the Hokage Monument today?" asked Kakashi.

"No, I can't say I have. What did he do? Put a bush up the Third's nose?" She laughed at that.

Kakashi reached into his pocket and removed a few Polaroid pictures of the heavily defaced monument, consisting of wide shots and close-ups of the individual faces. "Nobody even saw him do it. The ANBU just looked up and it was done."

Anko perused through the snapshots in shock. "Then how do you know that it was him?"

The Third sighed. "From my understanding, a streak of orange was seen fleeing the scene. He was also quite vocal about it."

Anko groaned. "I knew I should have hit him one more time. When did you guys catch him?"

Kakashi looked at the ground. "We haven't. It's been three hours and we still haven't caught him."

Anko snickered as she looked at the Polaroid of the Fourth. "Oh, I am keeping this." She pocketed the photo of her brother, and faced Kakashi. "Three hours? You're losing your touch. What did you guys send after him, a team of Genin?"

"He has avoided two squadrons of elite Jonin, and one squad of ANBU," replied the Third.

Anko let her head drop onto her sofa, and started laughing aloud. "That kid is definitely his father's son. I only wish he could have met his mother."

At that moment, the ANBU tattoo emblazoned on Ibiki's arm flared red, and an encoded Chakra Message was transmitted directly to his brain. As he was one of the Department Heads in ANBU, information was transmitted to him periodically about ANBU operations. "It would seem that Iruka finally caught him. He found Naruto in an alley. Iruka commented that it sounded like he was arguing with somebody, but there was nobody else around." He looked at the Third.

"What is his status?" asked the Third.

"Iruka has taken him home to rest. He's worried about him. The Genin Selection Exam is tomorrow, and now that Naruto's twelve, he won't need to fail him automatically like we agreed."

Anko yawned. "It looks like you kiddies have found him. Playtime's over. Get out." She gestured carelessly towards the door.

--

"The final part of your test will be a practical exam. You will be admitted into the side room to test your proficiency with Ninjutsu. Unlike the written test and the Taijutsu matches, this part of the test will be done individually. The test will be on the Clone Technique." One by one, students were called until his name was called. "Go ahead, Naruto, perform the Jutsu, please." _Damn. He knows I can't do that move. I can't focus my chakra enough to perform it. Why does he do this_? He attempted to focus and perform the Jutsu, but he failed, just as he knew he would.

--

Naruto sighed as he swung from the swing across from the academy. _Another year, and there's another failed test. How many does that make now_? Mizuki came up behind him. "You know Iruka just doesn't want to see you get hurt, right?"

"But I wanted to graduate. It's that stupid move. I'm going to be the best Hokage there ever was, but I don't think that any of them used any simple stupid clones, so why should I?"

Mizuki sighed. "Alright, I think you're old enough to know about the alternative exam. Normally, I wouldn't even suggest this, but for our future Hokage, I think you can handle it."

"Really," Naruto asked. He leapt and grabbed Mizuki into a tight hug. "Thank you!"

"Don't mention it. Just please let me go." Naruto quickly let go of him and chuckled. Mizuki started gasping for breath. "Okay, here's what I want you to do."

--

_Why does that stupid Jutsu work on everybody? I mean, come on_. Naruto had successfully obtained the scroll Mizuki had told him about. By the conditions set down by Mizuki, Naruto was now officially able to graduate. He had removed a heavily guarded document from a secure location, and taken it to the rendezvous. It was just like the missions that Naruto thought he should have been able to perform by now, and would be if they had just let him graduate. Now, to make sure that they wouldn't be able to keep him from graduating, he was going to learn one Jutsu off of it.

_Why didn't anybody tell me about this way earlier? I could have graduated years ago_. He unrolled the scroll and looked at the first line. _Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu. If performed correctly, this Jutsu will divide your remaining chakra amongst all of the created clones. A small portion of the resulting clone's chakra is used to make the clone tangible. The clone will disperse when its chakra is spent, or destabilized due to Ninjutsu or sufficient impact_. _That sounds interesting. I can actually see the Hokages using this_. He brought his hands up into the hand-seal for the Jutsu and funneled chakra into the move. His first attempts did not work well. He had trouble stabilizing the divided chakra for the clone, and creating a shell to keep it tangible. Naruto had to admit, though. This kind of clone was looking far more promising. At least his attempts didn't look like malnourished dolls. He would just have to hunker down and focus.

After about an hour of practice, he just about had it. Putting his hand together into the seal he focused and produced one clone, who came into existence and instantly started to check out its surroundings. Than seeing Naruto it grabbed him and started pulling him away. "Hey, what are you doing?"

The clone pushed him up against the wall and held him there. "Would you shut up?" it hissed at its creator. "Why is it that you never seem to realize that being loud only gives away your position? People have ears, they can hear you." The clone's eyes flashed red. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to finish up what I started against that bastard-Yamanaka, before his snake-bitch stopped me. I don't understand how somebody as week as you was able to prevent me from doing my thing for the last four years."

"No, when I become Hokage, all of the citizens and ninja of Konoha will be mine. I won't let you hurt them."

"So you do have a backbone." The clone let go of Naruto. "When you become a Hokage," he taunted. "When you become a Hokage; grow up, kid. They're never going to make you Hokage. Those villagers hate you. You will never get good enough, but I am that good. You need to let me help you." The clone turned its head to make sure they were alone. He could sense two approaching Chakra signatures and realized that he needed to go. "A few things before I leave. One, if you're actually going to perform an actual Shadow Clone, you may want to get your head out of the clouds and actually focus on the move. Shadow Clones are meant to be empty shells controlled by the whims of their creator, and something tells me that I'm not an empty shell. Probably because you're not in control of me, and you were thinking about how you're a graduate now. Focus on the move. Two, because I am such a nice guy," the clone flashed his teeth at this point, "I will not hurt anybody this time. But think about what I said. The spilled blood of your enemy at your hands is a feeling like no other, and you're going to have to experience it at some point. Third, figure out your own actual history, because if you think that those villagers actually like or respect you, they must have put a pretty damn good Memory Seal on you. Either that or the idiot that you've been pretending to be has rubbed off on you. And now, I will leave you to the tender mercies of your loving friends. I'll bet Iruka is just dying to see you."

With that, the clone punched Naruto dead in the stomach, lifting him up off his feet and throwing him back ten feet into a wall. Naruto curled up on the ground with the wind knocked out of him, just as Iruka appeared.

--

Naruto trudged to his apartment. _What a day_. As he got to his room, he groaned. His door had been kicked in again, and judging by his kitchen and living room, somebody had used a high level fire Jutsu to burn everything in sight. _And now I know why they do this kind of thing_. He started straightening things out. _At least I got the Shadow Clones down. When I focused on the Jutsu, it worked perfectly_. He headed to his room, which was also burned out. He lifted up the loose floorboard under his bed. He put his goggles, a gift from the Third when he was nine, into the space. Then he pulled out a sleeping bag and reset the floorboard. He laid it out where his bed used to be and climbed into it. _Fox or no, I will be Hokage_, he thought as he fell asleep. Behind the seal on his stomach, the Kyubi laughed. At the door to his apartment, a figure dressed in black robes with red eyes said, "you poor naïve little fool. I guess its time for Phase Two."

--

A/N: No reviews or thoughts about the last chapter? I thought that would be an interesting development and you guys would have some sort of reaction. Oh well. So now we get into the thick of it. He finally learns his signature Jutsu, and it looks like he had some trouble learning it. Any omitted sections of Canon storyline occurred relatively the same way. Also, Iruka made Naruto clean up the monument after he recovered some of his strength. I hope you guys liked it. Read and Review.


	8. Chapter 8: GSE

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Eight: Genin Selection Exam

As his alarm clock wrenched him out of his dreams, Naruto twisted around sharply and sat up, grabbing a concealed kunai and brandishing it at whatever had disturbed him from his slumber. He narrowed his eyes at the alarm clock, grabbed it, and threw it against a wall before waking up enough to realize what he had done. _Damn it. Now I'm going to have to get a new clock, too_? Standing up and stretching, Naruto looked at his jumpsuit which he'd been forced to sleep in the night before. He did his best to smooth out the fabric, which was almost wrinkled beyond recognition and smirked. _I'm a graduate now. Maybe that crazy lady will let me start wearing normal clothes, but she never did say when to stop_. Turning to his sleeping bag, Naruto rolled it up, pried up the floorboard again, and stashed it away.

He went to his kitchen to see what survived the attack from the night before finding a packet of instant ramen lying on the floor which still happened to be sealed. As he moved across the kitchen to test the stove, he tossed the packet from hand to hand. Lo and behold, the stove did not work. _I didn't think it would anyway_. Moving to the table, Naruto sat down and broke the seal on the dry ramen noodles. He took some of the soup concentrate in the package and drizzled some of it over the noodles, proceeding to eat them dry. They were not really filling, and leaned towards the salty side, but it was better than not having anything. _Maybe I can convince Iruka to get me lunch or something, seeing as I've graduated now_.

Naruto strode out the door after eating his breakfast without even locking it. _What does it matter anyway? They're just going to kick it down if it's locked_. Increasing his pace, he started running to the Hokage Tower. Today he had to get his paperwork turned in, and tomorrow all registered graduates were introduced to their teams. _I don't care if that lady wants me to be dressed in orange or not_. As he passed the shopping district, he ducked into an alley and performed Transformation, away from prying eyes. Rather than shop as himself who would get grossly overcharged, he would go as the girl from his Sexy Jutsu, while toning it down, and covering himself up. _I'll just pop in, get the clothes, and if anybody asks, they're for my special friend_. He purchased only one outfit which was dark blue with a long flowing cloak. Although Naruto liked light colors, he wanted to buy something as far from orange as possible. Taking off as soon as he had paid, Naruto ran off again for the Hokage Tower. His transformation collapsed minutes after escaping from the store, due to not practicing extended transformation. Jonin could maintain a transformation for long periods of time, but his own collapsed after ten minutes.

Stopping at the bathroom to change, he hurried to the photographer who was stunned to see him out of the orange clothing he usually wore. If the photographer didn't know for a fact that the Fourth had died for the village, he would have thought the past Hokage had jus walked through the doorway. "Hey kid, what happened to the orange?"

"I am not going to be dressed in that stupid color for my registration forms."

"It looks good on you, kid." He waited for the boy to throw a pose like he had expected him to. "What, no pose?"

"Could you just take the picture please?" Naruto asked allowing a blank expression to show on his face again.

The camera whirred, and the photographer took the Polaroid and handed it to the boy after examining it for a moment. "It turned out really good. You look like you can take on the world." Naruto accepted the picture and bowed to him, then proceeded to turn and leave.

After filling out the remaining portions of the form, he waited for his audience with the Third and Iruka. The other members of his graduating class who happened to be there gave him dirty looks. They couldn't figure out why he was there. He hadn't graduated. And what was up with his clothes. Didn't he always wear orange? After waiting for those who had arrived ahead of him to conclude their meetings, it was his turn. As he walked through the doors, he couldn't help but smile at the reactions of the Third and Iruka. Just the looks on their faces as they realized just who had walked through the door completely drove the fact that he didn't even have money for anything else from his mind. "Naruto?" asked Iruka.

Naruto smiled. "The one and only," he confirmed. "I brought in my paperwork like you told me to." He handed them his papers and sat down in one of the chairs.

The Third sighed. "If I told you to redo your picture, you wouldn't, would you?"

Naruto frowned. "No."

The Third looked at him. "Naruto," he started.

"No. I will not redo it. I hate that orange, and I just spent everything I had to get those clothes."

"Alright, alright, you can keep the picture," said the Third.

"As I told you last night Naruto, tomorrow will be your last session at the Academy. You will be told about your team. Who's on it, who your Jonin instructor is going to be, all of that good stuff. Afterwards, all of the students are dismissed, and the Academy just becomes a happy memory. Well, hopefully a happy memory."

"Thank you Iruka."

"Now that that's out of the way, what possessed you to buy those clothes? You look like the Fourth," barked Iruka.

"I just grabbed and bought whatever I could before my Transformation failed. I was going to try and get some other things too, but . . ."

At that moment, Anko leaped in through the open window. The Third had started to leave it open after she broke it again a few years before. "Hey, Old Man," she called. "I need to talk to you about that crazy Genin team with the ever-youthful Jonin Instructor who won't get out of my backyard. If he doesn't get out, I might have to do something un-youthful to the guy." She turned her head to see where Iruka was looking to see a miniature version of the Fourth. As she slowly recognized who she was looking at, her face adopted a look that promised a great amount of pain. "When did I tell you to stop wearing orange, runt?"

"I told you that I hate orange."

"As I recall, I told you to start liking it."

"What fool could like orange? If you actually happen to like that color then I feel sorry for you, because you must be the only one in this village who likes it."

"This does not bode well for you," she hissed. Anko grabbed Naruto out of his chair and pinned him into the wall with a few kunai. "When I tell you to do something, you do it, no questions asked."

Naruto struggled against the weapons binding him to the wall. "Nothing that you can possibly do will get me back into that stupid jumpsuit."

Anko brought another kunai up against his throat, and pressed it against his jugular. "Just tempt me brat. I am giving you thirty seconds to leave, change, and report back here. If you're not dressed in orange, or if you do not get back here in time, I will hunt you down, and I will get some blood out of you. And your time starts now." Naruto quickly disappeared via Substitution.

Anko turned to the Third. "Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"Yes. He's going to have to wear that until he can protect himself, and he can't do that yet. Speaking of which, you're putting him in my team."

"You don't have a team," said Iruka.

"I beg to differ. Whatever team that he was going to be put in, is mine now. If the Third wouldn't let me raise him as his only remaining family member, than I will be his Jonin Instructor. I expect it shouldn't be too difficult. You wanted to keep Kakashi in the ANBU anyway, didn't you? I'll just let the two of you deal with that." Anko turned to leave. "Now, I have a Genin to catch. His time is up. Oh, if you don't want to lose one of your Jonin, and his Genin team, make sure he isn't using my yard as a training ground tomorrow. Fair warning," she said and jumped out the same window she arrived in to find Naruto.

Iruka gave the Third a look. "You're not going to give her a team, are you?" he asked. Outside the Third's grandson continued to peak through the crack between the doors. Konohamaru had called off his sneak attack when he saw Anko come in through the window and started acting like she was the highest point of authority. He didn't need a useless instructor like that Ebisu. What he needed was a teacher like Anko. Not afraid of anything and completely ready to beat everyone around her. He would get her to teach him, or his name was not Konohamaru.

--

The next morning, Naruto was lying in his sleeping bag. His eyes were bloodshot and there were large bags under his eyes. He couldn't sleep due to nerves, and the extreme amount of pain that Anko had inflicted on him. Fortunately, only bruises remained from his old injuries. _At least she didn't seem to want to draw blood. That could have been bad_. Stomach grumbling, he straightened out his clothes, which were considerably wrinkled after two nights of use. Again, Naruto checked his closet but he didn't find anything else he could wear, except his new clothes from the day before, which Anko seemed dead set against him wearing. _Please don't let her be my Jonin Instructor. I'll even put up with Sasuke, just don't have that crazy woman be my Jonin Instructor_. Deciding to lock his door today, he stepped out of his apartment to make his way to the Academy for his 9:00 meeting. A streak of red and purple blazed down the street as Sakura and Ino blazed down the road and he shook his head. The squabbles that those two had were downright embarrassing for ninja everywhere. He followed the settling dust cloud all the way to the Academy, where he eagerly took a seat to take a load off until Iruka arrived.

_If I can't get a meal with Iruka, maybe I can at least get him to give me some money. I'm starving_. Naruto took a seat, trying to ignore the world, but this was not meant to be. Shikamaru started poking him in the shoulder with one finger until Naruto looked up at him, annoyance on his face. "What?"

"Only graduates are supposed to be in here."

Jerking his thumb at his forehead protector, Naruto replied. "Does it look like I failed? I learned a better clone Jutsu than the standard one they teach everybody, and they let me pass."

Shikamaru sighed. "So troublesome," he said as if trying to not use any energy whatsoever. Sitting down opposite Naruto Shikamaru put his head on the desk, attempting to ignore the noise the fan girls were making over Sasuke. He was asleep within three minutes. Naruto also attempted to block out the noise, just staring blankly ahead, thinking.

Moments later, Iruka entered the classroom from the back. "Ok everyone. Everybody settle down." Grudgingly, the class obeyed and quieted down. Shikamaru slept on. "The Third and I have formed all of the teams. These teams are final, and you will be in them until one or all of you have passed the Chunin Selection Exams. I do not want to hear any complaints about your teams because they have been formed with the goal of having a balanced team. Understood?" All of the attentive members of the class nodded their heads in the affirmative. "Good. I have prepared handouts with your teams and Jonin Instructors on them. I want them to be handed out as quickly as possible. After you know who is on your team, I want you to meet up with them and get to know them. Your Jonin Instructors will be here after lunch to pick you up. Usually, you will be on these teams for at least a year, or more. Use this available time to get to know your teammates." Iruka gave a thick stack of papers to the closest graduate to get them distributed as quickly as possible.

Ino waited impatiently in her seat to find out her team and turned to face her rival, sitting in the row in front of her. "Don't worry Forehead. I'll let you talk to Sasuke when he's my teammate." Her eyes glazed over as she began to think about having Sasuke as a partner.

"In your dreams Ino-pig, because Sasuke's going to be on my team," Sakura retorted, just as the papers were handed to Ino and herself. After staring each other down promising each other a world of hurt if the other were paired with Sasuke instead of them, they looked at the paper and found their names.

"What? Why am I paired with Tubby and Pineapples-For-Brains? He's so fat, and he's so lazy," screamed Ino.

"Why am I paired with Bug-Boy and Dog-Boy?" screamed Sakura. Both girls started crying.

Naruto was not much better off as he turned to speak with his new teammate Sasuke. "I need to talk to you about our new Jonin Instructor. She's kind of . . ."

A shattering of glass announced the arrival of Anko. Iruka groaned. "You're early. The Jonin aren't supposed to pick up their teams until 1:00."

"I have better things to do than waste half my day waiting for my team to get settled in."

"Would it kill you to use a door?" asked one of the random graduates. He promptly found himself pinned down by large numbers of kunai.

"Alright Team 7. Get your butts over here, we're leaving," said Anko, as though people randomly being pinned down by dangerous weaponry was common. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata grudgingly got up and strode over to their Jonin Instructor. "Ok guys, you better keep up with me," and she took off out the window again.

Naruto turned to Iruka. "Has she ever used a door?"

"I don't think so, Naruto."

Team 7 followed Anko to an empty field in the North, a little ways from the Forest of Death. "Alright team, I can't teach you in the Forest of Death, as much as I want to, because they use it in Examinations often, and I'm not allowed to give you that kind of an edge. And the training grounds are pathetic. Do you think in real life there are going to be training grounds for you to fight in? Fields are good. You can see in all directions. It will be quite difficult for somebody to sneak up on you. The best thing though is to learn to fight everywhere, that way you're ready for anything. You get it, Maggots?" They nodded. "So the first thing to get out of the way is your Genin Test."

"We already took that," said Sasuke as he pointed at his forehead protector.

"You took the GQE, or the Genin Qualification Exam. All Jonin Instructors are required to administer the GSE, or the Genin Selection Exam. The GQE tells us if you're good enough to be Genin. The GSE enlists you into the rank of Genin, and has a 66 fail rate, so one person in every group will not pass. Most Jonin use the Bell Test for the GSE. I whipped up a little something to speed things up."

Anko reached into a scroll and brought out three lunches and set them down in front of the team. "One of these lunches is poisoned. Each of you will eat one of the lunches. One of you will die; the other two of you will pass. As a bonus, the two who pass will have learned to deal with the death of a friend, which will make it easier when you have to start taking the lives of your enemies. Or you can refuse to eat. Mind you, I'll probably fail whoever refuses to eat, and possibly kill them. When you're on a mission, you need to maintain your energy levels, and refusing to eat because it looks slimy or some shit will get you killed, and Konoha does not need shitty ninja like that. So what's it going to be?" The three teammates all grudgingly accepted the lunches and quickly ate them quickly. Then they looked at each other in fear. Anko laughed. "You three are going to go far. You all pass." The team started whooping at their accomplishment. "By the way, Ninjas lie. All of the lunches were poisoned, and you will all start to feel the effects right about now." The members of Team 7 all fell over unconscious. "Did Iruka teach them anything at the Academy? At least I'm nice enough to not use a lethal poison." Leaving her team in the grass, Anko went home.

--

A/N: I made the chapter longer. I'm sorry if you don't like the Anko Test, but I think that the Bell Test is overused, and I wanted to use something original. Please review.


	9. Chapter 9: Training Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Nine: Training Begins

_"I can't believe you fell for that." _The voice broke the silence and Naruto rustled in his lying position.

_"What?"_

_"You actually let her poison you? It's completely pathetic. Remind me why I haven't killed you."_

_"Just go away."_

_"You might be thinking that you can push me away, but sooner or later, you will not be able to deny me, and your weak and worthless life will be over."_

_"Leave me alone."_

"I'll leave you for now, but you can't stop me." These final words, more than just heard in his mind, were enough to jar him from his state of unconsciousness and wake him up.

**--**

Naruto sat bolt upright in his bed. All of his surroundings were white, and seemed to be sanitized regularly. Naruto squinted both of his eyes to try and let them adjust. He was in a room; there were two beds besides the one he was in. The other two were being used by his still unconscious teammates. "Where am I?" he asked.

"So you're awake huh? I should have guessed that you'd wake up first. Well runt, I'm going to tell you what the plan is for the first week, and then you're going to tell your team. Seeing as how you passed the GSE, you three are all official Genin. As such we are now eligible to take missions. Just so we're clear, I will not be letting you guys take D-rank missions. The point of the GSE is to make you understand the value of teamwork, although I think that no amount of teamwork means that you don't improve yourself. I don't want you to ever stand on the sidelines while your team is fighting. If I catch you, I will kill you. Every member of the team will have their own role, and they need to play to it. I'll let you guys decide what those roles are yourselves. Anyways, my test forced you to work together and understand the risks of what you have chosen to do. Shinobi are killed every day out there, and you will have to accept that. By accepting the lunches from me, you accepted that one of you would have died, rather then all of you, and put your lives on the line for your objective, which is what real ninja do. Now, I have my own things to take care of, so the team will not be meeting with me this week. You guys will work together and get into shape, and fix up your chakra control. You have seven days to learn how to climb a tree by using your feet with chakra only. I will not give you details, so you will have to do a little reconnaissance to figure out how it works. When I see you next week, you will walk up a tree of my choice, and I will not let you take a running start. After that I will tell you your next assignment. Oh, I want you guys to try and come up with ways to strengthen your body's immunity to poison. No telling when my hand may slip when you're eating breakfast." Anko laughed and stepped out of the door to the hospital room. "I'll see you maggots next week."

"Oh this is going to be hell," Naruto groaned.

A nurse walked into the room. After seeing Naruto awake, she dropped what she was holding and rushed up to him. "You shouldn't be awake yet. Anko told us what happened. The poison that was on those weapons you guys were using is very potent."

"What weapons?"

"Anko explained how she was showing you the various weapons that she would teach you to use. One of the weapon displays fell over and nicked you guys. She gave us a sample of the poison. You guys were very lucky that the poison did not cause death."

The nurse grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled off the bandage that was there. When the bandage was removed, Naruto could see the remains of a deep cut on his arm that was clearly inflicted by a sword or knife of some sort. The nurse quickly replaced the bandages with fresh ones and tied the ends securely, but not too tightly. "That sadistic bitch," Naruto grumbled under his breath so that the nurse would not hear.

"You shouldn't even be sitting up yet," she declared and pushed Naruto's upper body down onto the bed. "Your body needs rest so that it can heal properly."

"I'm fine, really," Naruto tried to reassure, and began to sit up.

The nurse promptly pushed him back into the bed. "If you will not lie there and rest by yourself, I will get a team and have you restrained. Will you cooperate?" Naruto did not answer, and just lay there and sulked. "Good." The nurse went on and began to check on Hinata.

"How long were we asleep?" Naruto asked angrily.

"You guys have been here for two days." Naruto looked at her as if asking if she was serious. "Consider yourself lucky, that particular poison was supposed to knock you out for close to five days."

Despite what the nurse had told him, Naruto sat up and rounded on her. "You're going to keep me in here for three more days? No, look at me, I'm fine. You can let me go home. Anko gave us a week to do something, and we can't afford to waste time."

The nurse walked over to the intercom next to the door. "I'm going to need some help in room 246." A small group of nurses and one doctor promptly entered the room. The group successfully had Naruto back in his bed and fully restrained, even though he struggled as much as he could. When they found that he wouldn't remain quiet, they sedated him.

**--**

Five days later a fully recovered Team 7 exited the hospital. Hinata and Sasuke had woken up three days later as was expected. The staff had decided that they needed to keep them in observation for two more days. To keep Naruto quiet, they had taken to keeping Naruto sedated for the remainder of his stay. He looked quite a bit thinner than just a week previous. "I hate hospitals," Naruto yelled as soon as he was released. "Ok guys. Anko was in the room when I woke up the first time and said that we had one week to learn how to climb trees with chakra only. We have two days before she's going to test us and she wants us to be able to do it without a running start. As if that wasn't enough, she also wants us to come up with ways to boost our resistance to poisons. She implied poisoning us again."

Sasuke processed their task. "Did she tell you how to do that?"

"She didn't say anything."

Hinata poked her fingers together as she thought about their dilemma. "We could ask Kurenai. She might be able to help us," she managed to say, very quietly.

"Than we should find her as soon as possible," said Sasuke. If they were already on Anko's good side, he did not want to find out what would happen if they were on her bad side.

"That's a great idea, Hinata. Let's go," exclaimed Naruto. Hinata smiled just a little bit for the first time in a very long time. The trio sped away quickly, Hinata in the lead. "Oh, I almost forgot. Anko doesn't want to see any slackers. She wants each of us to contributes something to the team, and to choose amongst ourselves what we will each contribute."

"We should worry about that after we finish tree climbing. We are on a deadline after all," said Sasuke.

For the next two hours, Team 7 followed Hinata's lead trying to find Kurenai. They eventually found her with Shino, Kiba, and Sakura in one of the training grounds. Sakura instantly ran up to and grabbed onto Sasuke, screaming his name. Naruto looked at Hinata who was again poking her fingers together. "I'm glad you aren't like that. You are so much stronger than her," he whispered into her ear. Her face became red, and she swayed on the spot as her brain comprehended what her teammate had just said. For as long as she could remember, Naruto had been what she could not, and she had respected him for it. He was so open, like she used to be. After what had happened to her mother, Hinata had not gotten close to anybody. She hardly interacted with her father or her sister, or the boy she respected, because she did not want to lose them the way she lost her mom. She especially had difficulty with the training exercises her dad tried to teach her, because they were responsible for the killing blow. This was simply too much for her, and she collapsed in a dead faint. "Hinata?" he asked in a panic.

"What's happening here?" asked Kurenai.

"Hinata thought that you could help us with an exercise that Anko wanted us to perform. I don't know what happened to her. She just fell over"

Kurenai looked Hinata over. After they had been in the hospital together so many years ago, Kurenai thought of Hinata as a little sister or daughter. She agreed whole-heartedly with her father about her needing a motherly sort of figure in her life, and as long as Hinata accepted her, she would continue to help her out in any way she could. "She'll be ok. What was this exercise that you're supposed to learn?"

Sasuke had finally gotten Sakura off of him and pushed her as far away as he could, upsetting Kiba and Shino, who could seemingly get along with her. "Tree climbing," he stated.

Kurenai blinked. "Did you say tree climbing?" Team 7 nodded. "Why do you need to know that?"

"Anko gave us a week to learn it, but that was five days ago, and we were all in the hospital," Naruto said in disgust. He hoped he would never have to go to the hospital again.

"You were in the hospital?" Kurenai asked in disbelief. "Do I want to know what she did to you?"

"No, you don't. Now will you tell us how to do the exercise?" asked Sasuke bluntly. Kurenai reluctantly explained the exercise. It really was not something that was covered in the first week of training. Thanking her, Team 7 prepared to go try the exercise. Before they left, Kurenai gave them some smelling salts, so that they could wake up Hinata if she were to faint on them again.

Team 7 spent the next two days practicing. Hinata had gotten it first. Hyuga family members were well versed in chakra manipulation because it had such a prominent role in their fighting style. With her help, Naruto and Sasuke were able to get it during the second day. Kurenai had warned them against the dangers of applying chakra to forcefully, and not applying enough. To find a good balance, the three of them devised challenges where they would stand halfway up a tree and just stay there for as long as they could hold it. There were a few mistakes in the beginning where Naruto applied too much chakra and destroyed the part of the tree he was practicing on, blasting himself ten feet away. They grew tired quickly, and tried to decide what each would bring to their team. When they met up with Anko, they felt somewhat confident.

"All right, maggots; follow me." She took them to a deserted part of the city where the buildings grew close together. "I want you to take what you learned from the tree climbing, and I want you to scale these buildings."

Naruto went up to one of the walls and tested it to get a feel for how different it would be from trees. "Okay," he said slowly.

"She's not done. That's too easy for her," said Sasuke.

Anko smiled widely. "Of course not; where's the fun in that? No, you will climb these walls by alternating from one wall to the other. To keep you on your toes," she went up to each wall and performed her Jutsu, "these walls will be covered with snakes." Team 7 began to get worried. "Did you guys come up with ways to boost your immunity? The snakes are poisonous. And I must apologize in advance."

"Apologize for what?" asked Hinata.

The next moment, Anko had broken each of their left arms. As they collapsed to their knees in pain, Anko replied. "Apologize for that. Now, we are going to stay here until all three of you can scale these buildings. I'll see you at the top." She vanished in a swirl of leaves, only to reappear and wave at them from the top of the building.

"I assume she's going to say that breaking our arms will prepare us for the real world, or something; to keep on going, even though we're in so much pain. I hate that woman," said Naruto. His teammates nodded their heads in agreement. "Come on guys. If I'm going to end up in the hospital again, I'm going to make sure that I have more than a single broken arm for them," and with that, he leapt forward and started scaling the building.

--

A/N: Ok guys. First poll: Do you want me to keep on giving details about their training and some of their missions, or do you want me to skip forward with a brief overview and the occasional flashback? I'll probably have another chapter of training and a mission because of the way I'm setting up the story, but I'm letting you guys put in a word. So, do you want details, or do you want an overview. Send a PM or post a review with your opinions. As always, please leave reviews about your opinions of the story. Just out of curiosity, do you think that Anko is OOC, or would you expect her to act like this? She seems to be acting kind of like Heath Ledger's rendition of the Joker from Dark Knight only not on the bad guy's side, and I think it fits her.


	10. Chapter 10: Enter Akatsuki

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Ten: Enter Akatsuki

Naruto's eyes shot open and he attempted to sit up in his hospital bed. The hospital staff had resorted to tying him down as soon as he was admitted after his third visit. Glaring at nothing in particular, he tried to remember which of Anko's antics had put him in the hospital this time. Each time he had been sent to the hospital because of training, Sasuke and Hinata were right there with him. The first time had been their GST. After attempting to get to the top of the building in Anko's 'tree-climbing' test, the three of them had been treated for chakra exhaustion, snake bites, the broken arm that each of them had been dealt and varying amounts of poison from said snake bites. It seemed that as much as Anko seemed to want to injure them, she was holding back. Their broken limbs had clean breaks, and aside from a little inflammation from the exercise she was testing them on, were easy to fix. The poison was clearly one of the weaker ones that Anko had available. No member of the team even became unconscious during the exercise. Team 7 had needed a week to recover from the test, and Naruto was again bound to the bed.

Following the tree-walking, Anko immediately upped the anti. She had them proceed to water-walking, and to keep up the theme, she again didn't tell them how. After revealing that it was more difficult than the previous exercise, Anko gave Team 7 two weeks to learn how to do it and left. Unlike before, Kurenai refused to tell them how, saying that teaching tree-walking in the first week was one thing, but that water-walking was definitely something that they needed to wait to learn. They tried to talk with Iruka, but he was busy assigning missions to the new teams, as well as teaching some of the new academy students. Finally, team 7 found the theory of the exercise after spending three days in the library. Implementing the theory was a lot harder than they thought, and they spent a week just trying to keep above the surface of the water.

The three of them were finally beginning to mesh together and work together. While each of them still had their own personal insecurities, facing challenges as a group had made team 7 grow a lot closer. Hinata was now somewhat more open, but still had trouble because she didn't want anything she let close hurt her. Sasuke was gradually letting down his shield. He had acknowledged that his teammates were strong, and that they could potentially help him with his goals. Naruto felt that he had finally found a semblance of a family in his team, and didn't allow the glares that the villagers gave him from time to time bother him. Seeing as Anko was not giving them missions until she deemed them ready, she had put them all on an allowance for the time being. It was enough for them to take care of themselves, even though Hinata had access to the Hyuga funds, and Sasuke was the sole heir to the Uchiha fortune.

When Anko had finally tested them for the water-walking, team 7 was prepared. Not knowing what to expect, they had come up with a single way to up their immunity to poisons, and they felt they were ready for anything. Anko had come and explained the rules. They were to stand on the surface of the water while she used various Jutsu in attempts to distract them and cause them to fail, and they had to hold it for one hour. Team 7 tensed up ready to use their plan in case she attempted to break another limb, but she didn't do anything, instead calling the first student out onto the surface of the water. Eventually the three of them passed, but each of them had sported burns from Fire Jutsu, and Sasuke's hair was standing on end from when he baited Anko and she hit him with a Lighting Jutsu.

The next time the group met, Anko told them that although they were not yet ready to go on missions, they had gotten to a sufficient level for her to actively participate in their instruction. While Sasuke and Naruto cheered that they would finally be able to learn Ninjutsu, Anko corrected them and told them that they would be spending time learning Taijutsu. Hinata was happy to hear this, but Naruto and Sasuke were not. They spent the next month working on Taijutsu, in various stages. First they just had light sparring matches. Anko urged the team to not use the same move more than once and to try to come up with new ideas. She wanted them to keep loose in their moves, and referred to the motion of a snake many times. After one week of that, she had them start doing their spars on walls and tree surfaces. She forced them to go all out, and made each of them maintain their grip on the surfaces they were standing on. This was especially difficult for them because they were not staying in a single location. After that, Taijutsu spars on the surface of the water. Team 7 did not find this exercise as difficult as the previous one. If they lost their concentration, they would sink into the water, but at least they wouldn't go flying through the air, or suddenly slip and hit the ground.

After Taijutsu training, Anko pronounced them ready for Ninjutsu training and for missions. True to her word, she did not accept any D-rank missions for her team. Their first missions were escort missions and delivery runs. Anko maintained their training regime and kept upping the difficulty. After completing their first two missions, Anko had the team return to the lake that they had used to test for water-walking. This time she wanted them to do the same exercise while standing upside down on the surface of the water. She explained that this exercise was used to cover a person's tracks, keep out of sight, and most importantly to keep quiet. The exercise was not that much more difficult than regular water-walking, but Anko wanted them to be able to stay under water for extended periods of time, and to do that they had to learn about the additional uses of the Chakra Circulatory System. Due to the way the Chakra Network was tied so close to the other systems in the body, such as the nervous system, and the circulatory system, a person could use the Chakra System to trick the body into working normally. While they were underwater, they had to use chakra to transfer air from where their feet were contacting the surface through the Chakra System to the heart, where the air would then be used as if it had been inhaled. Theoretically, if they were proficient at this, they could trick parts of the body to still work even if certain systems were damaged. Unfortunately, chakra couldn't be run through the other systems and would have to be fixed before chakra could be used again. Sasuke had a lot of trouble with this, and actually activated his Sharingan in his attempts to focus air through his body with his chakra.

Next, Anko had them start work on seals. Nothing extravagant, but she wanted them to know the basics; at least enough for storage and basic comprehension. Any idiot could go and buy their own Explosion Tags, but they may have been faulty and people with a rudimentary understanding in seals would be able to catch the mistakes, or simply make their own. After studying seals for two weeks, she assigned the team to study summoning scrolls. She wanted them to come back at the end of the designated time with an understanding of how a summoning scroll worked. At the end of the time, she produced her own copy of the snake summoning contract. While Orochimaru had written the original one, he had removed all of the people on the contract besides himself from his snake summoning scroll when he left. The majority of Anko's Jutsu were based off of the contract, and she had written her own. The terms of her contract also allowed her to summon only those snakes who did not demand sacrifices for their services due to a clause that she had written in. She had all of Team 7 sign the contract in blood, and they spent the next two weeks practicing summoning, and Anko's snake-based Ninjutsu.

Naruto smiled at the memories of the last four months. Team 7 had definitely gotten stronger. Then he frowned. Unfortunately, this trip to the hospital was not due to training, but rather an attack. On the last mission, they had been attacked by Itachi Uchiha, and for all of their strength they could not stand up to a former ANBU Captain. Itachi was clothed in a black cloak with blood-red clouds and a high collar, and he had a straw hat on his head. The collar and the hat essentially covered all of his features, but Naruto knew who it was as soon as he appeared. Team 7 resisted as long as they could, but it seemed since the Uchiha Massacre, Itachi had decided to favor Genjutsu and took out half of the group using a variant of Tsukuyomi. Instead of having the effects take a few moments in real time, he allowed it take an hour of real time, reducing the strain, and using his target's chakra to sustain it. Hinata and Sasuke were down quickly. Naruto and Anko quickly tried to end the fight so that they could get Hinata and Sasuke to safety.

Naruto shot snakes out of his sleeve at Itachi, who countered with his own. Anko could only assume that Orochimaru had allowed Itachi to sign his contract. The Sharingan would be able to copy the move, but the snakes came from the summoning contract. No Sharingan would be able to recreate the move without the contract. For a Genin, Naruto put up a good fight, but he and Anko were outclassed. Eventually, Itachi knocked Naruto out and he had woken up in the hospital. Hinata and Naruto were beside him. Their charts showed that they had not woken up since they had been hit by the Genjutsu three days ago. Their current status was similar to when Sasuke had been hit by Tsukuyomi before, and Ibiki had been unable to come and check on him. He was currently watching over one of his closest friends.

In another room, Anko was nursing two broken limbs, several burns, and had very low chakra. There were two doctors looking her over, but she wasn't even concerned about her well being. Her thoughts were full of turmoil and bounced from topic to topic very quickly. _After Naruto was knocked out, Itachi seemed unbeatable. Why would he come back? How did he come back? He's a missing-nin for crying out loud_. She winced as a doctor applied pressure and checked one of her worse burns, which happened to be third-degree. Itachi had used a black fire near the end of the fight. It had been one of his worst attacks, and was extremely devastating. After the initial attack, the fire had not gone out, and had continued to burn. The landscape of the area was completely changed. But after Itachi had used it, he had vanished. _Where could he have gone? I didn't even feel his chakra or his presence moving away, he was just gone. No way was it a clone. That thing had way too much power to be a freaking clone_. Again she grimaced as the doctors tried to set her arm and bind it to a splint. _I have to tell the Third, as soon as these guys let me the hell out of here."_

--

A/N: I'm worried that some people might be able to see the way this is going. I hope that the twists and turns that are coming up will still keep your guys' interest. Coming up soon are the Chunin Exams. Major stuff will be happening. I hope you like it. Read and review.


	11. Chapter 11: Nominations

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

A/N: For clarification, in the last chapter, I commented that Sasuke activated his bloodline during the breathing-underwater exercise. It wasn't that it was easy for Naruto and Hinata to do. Sharingan activates the first time when in a life-threatening circumstance where its powers can save the user. Although it can't see Chakra Flow as well as Byakugan, it still can, and that ability is what Sasuke needed to get the exercise. I hope that makes sense. Another reader asked about Jiraiya. While he will likely play a part in this story, I don't know yet if he will train Naruto. And I don't think that Naruto will be signing the Toad Contract because I don't understand how a wielder of two contracts works. For example, how do the summonses know which animal the user is summoning? Please respond if you have any ideas or questions. As always, read and review.

Chapter Eleven: Nominations

"Let me down, or I'll make you."

The black clothed figure holding the young boy turned to his sister standing nearby. "The kid's got a little fight in him." He looked at Konohamaru in his hand, a good three feet of the ground. Moegi and Udon were standing nearby.

"Come on, Kankuro, just let him go."

"No, Gaara is not here, and I'm going to enjoy this." Kankuro reached for a kunai from his holster.

"Just put him down." Naruto came around the corner. The hospital had finally released him after the Itachi incident, and although his teammates had not woken up yet, the staff wanted him out. He didn't want to go, but the hospital would not let him stay. "The kid likes to get in over his head. You should have seen what happened the first time he came to our group. Anyways, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by whatever he did, and he won't do it again." Naruto stared down Kankuro who did not make nay movement, and did not put Konohamaru down. Naruto decided to play the trump card. "The kid's practically a part of our team, and Konoha teams work together. If you don't put him down, I'm sure his grandfather would like to know about it."

"And just who is his grandfather?" asked Kankuro in a very annoyed tone

"His grandfather is none other than our village's Kage. Now put him down, unless you would like to cause a war."

Kankuro smirked, but put the boy down. "Well, if I can't have the boy, I guess I can settle for you." He made a beeline for Naruto, while Temari stared on in exasperation. Naruto got into a stance. He would defend his village, with or without his teammates. Kankuro never reached Naruto, and was blocked by his brother, who appeared in a swirl of sand.

"Stop Kankuro or I'll kill you."

"Sure Gaara; absolutely," stuttered Kankuro.

"Shut up, you have dishonored our whole village." Gaara's eyes glazed over and his sand started to swirl, heading slowly for his brother.

"Uh, Gaara?"" asked Kankuro. Gaara did not respond.

"Gaara," said Tamari loudly. This was enough to bring Gaara back. Immediately after, Temari got nervous. Depending on Gaara's mood, she may have just signed her own death warrant. Gaara pulled all of his sand back and started walking away, as he put the stopper into the gourd.

"Kankuro, Temari; lets go." Kankuro and Temari quickly followed after their brother.

As the Sand Siblings were leaving, Konohamaru called after them. "Now you know who I am, but just who are you?"

"Gaara of the Sands," answered Gaara, without even slowing down.

"Konohamaru, you should probably go home."

"Not until I learn something new."

Naruto rolled his eyes, and said, "Listen Konohamaru. You're still in the Academy. I'm actually surprised that Anko was willing to teach you what she did, because I can't find a motive. Go home." Konohamaru and his friends grudgingly went on down the street. Naruto started walking in the opposite direction to visit his teammates.

--

The Third sat behind his desk, looking at the assemblage of Jonin in front of him. He had called the Jonin meeting to determine what Konoha Genin Teams would be nominated for the Chunin Selection Exams. Anko had not been released from the hospital yet, so the assemblage of ninja in front of him was not complete. "Alright, first we will hear from the rookie team Instructors. Asuma, Kurenai, would you like to recommend your teams for the Chunin Exam?"

Asuma stepped forward first. "I nominate Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi of Genin Team 10 for the Chunin Selection Exams."

Kurenai followed suite. "I nominate Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno of Genin Team 8 for the Chunin Selection Exams."

The other Jonin, especially those that currently had their own Genin Teams were astounded. While it was true that any Genin could take the Chunin Exam as long as they had completed a sufficient number of missions, nominating rookie teams to the Exams had not happened in years. Many of the other Jonin began to protest. Gai was trying to use his own team as an example, suggesting that the rookie teams should wait. The discussion began to get louder as the Jonin tried to make their own opinions heard, until the Third raised his hands up for silence.

"It is the right of any Genin Team Instructor to nominate their team." He perused the files on his desk, finding the files of the nominated Genin. "These six Genin have completed the necessary number of missions. I accept your nominations. Are there any other Jonin who would like to nominate their teams?"

Gai stepped forward, almost faster than the eye could follow. "I nominate Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten of Genin Team 9 for the Chunin Selection Exams." Gai gave a thumbs-up as he continued louder than before. "If the Fires of Youth burn so brightly in these Rookie Teams, than my team will respond and rekindle their own Fires of Youth." Gai's proclamation was met with silence as he smiled warmly.

The Third quickly found their files, and accepted the nomination. Following Gai, seven more Instructors nominated their teams. "Now that the teams have been nominated, we will need to discuss the nature of this year's exam. As you are all aware, Anko and Ibiki have designed a new structure to the first and second parts of the test. Although I would like to give you the details for the new structure, they actually haven't given me a full description of what they have come up with."

"Damn right we haven't. You'll just blab it to all these Maggots and Roaches over here and ruin the surprise now won't you. I knew we shouldn't have told you," announced Anko as she slowly limped her way into the room.

"You didn't tell me."

"I know," replied Anko with a smile, even though she was obviously covering up a grimace from several wounds. She made her way to one of the chairs and eased herself down into it. Ibiki quickly rushed in through the door after her. "Geeze, Gramps. What have you been doing to your medical staff? They're freaking worse than me."

"What do you mean?"

"Since when do your freaking nurses bind people down? I thought they were kidding when my team told me about that. And they tried to sedate me. What the hell?"

"The hospital staff has always been able to restrain patients if they are being uncooperative, and refuse to stay still when they are being treated."

"Well, I'm not giving up any money to replace that syringe, that's for damn sure. And talk to somebody about the damn Doctor with the cold hands. Stupid bitch," Anko finished under her breath.

"Anko, why are you here?" asked one of the Jonin in the back of the room.

"The same reason as the rest of you slime. I nominate Maggots one, two, and three of Team 7 for the Exam." Everyone stared at her in silence. "Fine, I nominate Blonde-Brat, Frayed-Nerves, and Emo-Eyes for your damn test." All the Jonin shook their heads incredulously. "What?" Anko demanded. "I'm sure as hell that none of you guys can remember your Genin's names."

"Yes, yes we can," replied a female Jonin standing close to the Third. She had her head propped on her hand, and was shaking her head slowly.

Anko glared at her. "You're lucky that I'm in pain and tired, and that Ibiki is here to stop me, because if I wasn't, then you'd be dead." Anko sighed, as if trying to remove the pain from her system. "Check their mission stats. They have completed five C-ranks, and no failed missions."

The Third reviewed his files. "I accept the nomination of Genin Team Seven. Now would you like to give me some details about what your new testing method is like?"

"No," she replied as she eased into her chair. "That's ok." All the occupants in the room glared at her. "What?"

"The first part is a written exam. The second part is survival training," offered Ibiki.

Anko glared daggers at him. "At least you kept it vague. You're going to pay for that." She turned to face the Third again. "Just so you know, this will not be normal survival training. You will need to have all the participants sign those forms that you love so much. I'm not going to let any wimpy Chunin wannabes pass this test. After their GSE, my team knows that."

"Then won't your team be at an advantage?" asked one of the Jonin standing by the window.

Anko had the decency to look hurt. "All I said was that my team is not composed of wimpy members. I'm not even telling the old man what's in the test, why would I tell my team?" Nobody knew how to respond. "If your runts actually make it to the second test, then you can ask me that again. If they can't even pass the qualifiers, than I question your abilities as teachers." Her final comments created a lot of commotion amongst the Jonin, most of them taking offense to what she had said about their ability to teach and the others trying to figure out when the concept of qualifiers had even come up. It took several minutes to calm them down and get the room quiet again. As soon as the Third was successful, Anko spoke again. "This is boring. Ibiki, get me out of here."

"Why me?" asked Ibiki.

"Fine then," said Anko as she forced her way onto her feet and started making her way out of the room. "That's two Ibiki, pray you don't get to three," and with that she left the room.

"Did she say qualifiers?" asked the Third. "Haven't we already qualified them?"

"Yes, but her qualifiers are a little different from the nomination system," began Ibiki. "She's going to have two Chunin who are going to . . ."

"And that's three," interrupted Anko. "Sometimes I wonder how my brother thought you had the brains or the intelligence to be the Head of Torture and Interrogation, but believe me, I will remedy that. You have ten seconds to run."

"Anko, you're hurt. I don't think this is a . . ."

"If you didn't want a head start you should have just said so." Ibiki gulped and took off. "Three, two, one," Anko counted down. "Let's play, Ibiki." With that, she was gone faster than the other Jonin believed she would be able to move.

--

A nurse finally admitted Naruto into the room with his teammates. Taking a seat on of the chairs in the corner, he was joined in the room shortly after by one of his good friends. The two of them went way back. Naruto couldn't remember back to when he was a kid very well, but he remembered his friend. When the villagers and that one ANBU he hadn't seen after Anko made him start wearing orange, he was there. Naruto always admired him for his courage, but had not seen him as much of late, the last time being after the monument defacement stunt. "It's been a long time, Naruto."

"Yeah," agreed Naruto.

"Are you still wearing orange? Didn't you get something new?"

Naruto laughed. "Actually, I got some really nice clothes, but Anko won't let me wear them."

"I remember her. That ANBU guy called her after I struck him with lightning."

"Why would you attack an ANBU? Didn't they come after you?"

"Actually, no; they never came after me. You lay low for a while and they forget about you. I'm just better than others at getting under their radar. Besides, it was your fault. If you had just not put yourself in a position where I would have needed to save your ass with a lightning Jutsu, then I wouldn't have had to attack a member of the ANBU, and you know I hate to waste energy. At least I'm not wearing orange."

"I told you before; Anko won't let me wear my good outfit. Why don't I remember any of this?"

"Well you didn't forget much, I just told you I had to save your ass."

A noise from the bed next to them cut them off. Hinata was stirring and was almost awake. Ibiki had finally come to see Hinata and Sasuke and was eventually able to counteract the Tsukuyomi's effects. Just like the last time he did this to Sasuke, he had some trouble and was eventually able to overcome it. Hinata sat up slowly in her bed and a few tears ran down her face. "Naruto?" she asked.

"Yeah Hinata, I'm here."

"Wow Naruto, You've done pretty well for yourself." Naruto glared at him. "What? She's hot and you know it."

"Naruto, what happened? I kept seeing my mom. He just kept taking her away from me. I think I hurt her. Did I hurt Mommy, Naruto?"

"Who's he?"

"The man from the mission with the ugly cloak and hat," she answered while making small gestures with her hands. More tears started streaming down her face.

"Naruto, you should totally make a move.' Naruto shot him a look, clearly saying _now is not the right time_. "Fine, just remember that there are other guys out there, and they will make a move before you if you don't take initiative soon."

Naruto ignored him and tried to comfort Hinata. "The mission was two weeks ago, Hinata. That guy is long gone by now."

"Then he's gone? We have to find him. He took her from me, and I have to get her back."

One of the Doctors entered the room and noticed that Hinata was awake. "She finally wakes up, and you already have her emotionally unstable."

"That wasn't me, it's the aftereffects of the Jutsu, I swear."

"Fortunately for her, I was here the night her father brought her and her mother in, the day that she passed."

"My mother is not dead!" practically screamed Hinata, all nervousness and stuttering forgotten.

The Doctor lay her down in her bed and quickly began examining her. "Just what did you say to her? She's practically regressed to when she was five."

"She just said that he took her mother away from her. I think she was talking about the man from the mission."

"I think I can help her, but I'm going to need you to go outside. Your presence is escalating the situation." The Doctor paged a nurse who arrived promptly. "Bring Kurenai Yuhi here immediately. Tell her it's urgent." The nurse quickly vanished, and all other conscious occupants in the room filed out.

Soon, Anko came limping down the hall, and unconscious, bloodied, and bruised Ibiki over her shoulder. Her eyes fell on Naruto and slowly recognized him. "Hey Maggot, this is really convenient. I needed to give you these forms. They're so that you guys can register for the test to become Chunin in two days."

"Hinata just woke up, but I don't think she's ok. Are you sure we're ready?"

Kurenai had just arrived, followed closely by the nurse. Both of them silently entered the room. "How the hell should I know if you're ready? What do you think I am, your mother? Just take the damn forms so I can get rid of this stupid deadweight on my shoulder." She waved the said forms two inches in front of Naruto's face. Grudgingly, he took them.

"Hey, you should ask her if you can stop wearing orange." Naruto glared at him. "Fine then, don't listen to me about anything I say. Just go ahead and ignore me about the girl, and your screwed up fashion sense. I bet you actually like orange, and like to use her as a scapegoat, don't you."

"Hey Anko, I'm not wearing orange anymore. People think that its my idea and won't leave me alone."

"Whatever Brat; I think you're strong enough to deal with it now. By the way, that outfit I scared you out of four or five months ago? It looked really flattering on you. You can pull off the Fourth's look really well." She continued on down the hallway, and disappeared.

"Was that so hard? You should listen to me more."

"Shut up."

"Oh, I'm hurt." The two continued bickering all the way back to Naruto's apartment.


	12. Chapter 12: The Chunin Exams

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

A/N: I've started school again and I don't know if I can maintain an update a week like I was trying to. I will not be abandoning this, as I still have an idea of where I want it to go. Depending on your response, I might even be able to come up with a concept for a sequel, but I'll let you guys mull that over first. This chapter is easily the longest chapter to date and that is for two reasons. One: to apologize that this update came a little late, and two: because I wanted a certain amount of material to have been covered by the end of this chapter, and this is the result. Please enjoy, and review.

Chapter Twelve: The Chunin Exams

The next two days did not go well for Team 7. Sasuke had woken up the day after Hinata and was furious that Itachi was able to subdue him again. Hinata had been calmed down by Kurenai's efforts, but was not cured. As the Doctor had tried to explain, what she had witnessed at Itachi's hands had destroyed any semblance of progress made during the past seven years, and she was visibly distraught. A shell of what she used to be, and almost completely regressed. Currently, the Nurses were keeping her under constant sedation, except for the one or two hours that they would wake her to interact with her team, and consume solid food. It was the day before the test, during that time that Naruto broke the news to them.

"We've been nominated for the Chunin Exams?" Hinata managed very quietly.

"We should go," said Sasuke immediately.

"We've only gone on five missions, and we failed the final one. You guys were unconscious for a week," Naruto exclaimed.

"You're not Naruto. Just who the hell are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

Sasuke pointed a finger directly at Naruto. "The Naruto I know has always worn that disgusting jumpsuit."

Naruto looked down at his black and blue outfit, and played with the cloak a little bit. It felt so good not to be wearing orange anymore. "For reasons unknown, Anko made me wear orange. She almost killed me the last time I wore this. She finally said its okay."

"We've been nominated for the Chunin Exams?" Hinata repeated, even quieter. She seemed to be attempting to process the new information.

"Sasuke, we should wait. Look at her; she can't compete like this."

"She'll be fine. We are going to go, and we are going to become Chunin so I can defeat my brother."

"Everyone brings something to the team, you know that. If we try to do this as we are, our team will be missing half of it reconnaissance, and its close-quarters fighter, not to mention the closest thing we have to a field medic. We can't get through something as important as this with a mid-range fighter with a Sharingan, and a power-house strategist. Think about this. We can wait; we don't have to go to this Chunin Exam."

Sasuke scowled. He looked over at Hinata who was strapped down in her bed, her arms secured at her side. His eyes lingered as he saw the bandages wrapped around her wrists. "Then we'll vote. I say we go."

"Don't go. Ok Hinata, all you have to do is say you're not ready, and we won't do it. Come on, you can do it. Just say no."

"Mommy would be unhappy if I didn't go. I have to get stronger so I can protect her and be a big sister. Mommy would want me to go."

"No. No, no, no, no." Naruto quickly made his way out of the room, to get a Doctor, or anybody else who could back him up and make his teammates see that they shouldn't do the test. Unfortunately, the Doctor that Naruto found did not like him or Team 7 and wanted them out. He officially discharged Sasuke and Hinata later that day. That night, Naruto could not sleep. He knew that taking the test now would be a mistake, and he couldn't do a thing to stop it.

--

When morning came, Naruto got up like an automaton. He ate breakfast, and started his trek to the Academy. Even though he didn't want to be there, he would stand with his team, the way that Anko had trained them. Naruto met up with his team right outside the Academy, and they started making their way to the appropriate classroom. The first stage was being held in one of the Lecture Halls, and as such had not been built for comfort. Team 7 made their way past the two frauds casting a Genjutsu on the second floor that seemed to be harassing the Chunin hopefuls, presently the members of Team 9.

Most of the contenders didn't care as long as their own chances were maintained and passed them by. Heading directly to the lecture hall after Sasuke was challenged and brutally humiliated by Rock Lee, Team 7 was finally able to take a look at their competition. When they entered, everyone's eyes were on them. Many of the Konoha contenders were shocked to see that Naruto was wearing something that could actually be called normal attire. One of the older contenders, Kabuto, also got the attention of many of the rookie Genin when he offered to share his knowledge about the previous exam structure and participants. Sasuke quickly made use of his offer and attempted to get everything out of him that he could about the stronger competitors. The proctor and his sentinels arrived and began the explanation of the first part of the exam. Naruto exhaled sharply when it was revealed that the first test was a written examination. Despite his team not being up to snuff, they could at least pass a written test easily. All of the Genin listened intently to the rules: a point-reduction system, ten questions, and one hour to complete it in. You would pass or fail as a team, and any person caught cheating five times would be disqualified along with their team.

_So all I have to do is fail on purpose, and the team will be pulled from the test_. Before Naruto could even finish his thought, Sasuke interrupted. "You better not be thinking of failing on purpose. We took a vote and agreed to do this, so you better give it your all. I will not lose out on an opportunity to get back at Rock Lee because you still don't think that we can do this."

"A written test even we can complete in our current state, but what about the second or third part?"

"Who cares about the second or third parts? We'll beat this written test and the rest of this thing so long as you don't fail on purpose. And you won't, do you understand me?"

"Okay, whatever. If you're so willing to get yourself killed then I won't stop you. Let's just get this over with."

All of the Genin turned in their application forms for their seating arrangements. The sating arrangement was designed to separate people from their team. Naruto found himself sitting next to a ninja from Rain and a ninja from Sound. Naruto recognized her from the Genin team that attacked Kabuto right before the Proctor arrived. Hinata was sitting next her cousin Neji, who glared at her when she came to sit down. Sasuke did not recognize the people that he was sitting with, and he didn't care either. The Proctor called start, and everyone flipped over their tests so that they faced right side up, and started looking over the test. Only the first nine questions had been revealed, they had 45 minutes to complete those nine, and they were hard; so hard that even the smarter candidates were having trouble making sense of them. After 45 minutes was up, many of the teams had been disqualified for one reason or another.

And of course, the final question was not a let down either. Choose not do take the question, or take it, knowing full well that if you answer wrong, you would be stuck at lowliest rank possible for life. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Sasuke was too stubborn to quit, and Hinata wanted to make her mother proud. Neither was willing to back out, and Naruto had agreed that he wouldn't. After everybody had made their decisions, the remaining teams were immediately passed to the next part of the test, after listening to Ibiki's speech about what it meant to be Chunin. It was then that Anko made her entrance through her usual window. "And let us all thank Ibiki here for not getting rid of as many of you as I thought he would. I suppose it could be because you guys might actually have some talent." The remaining teams, except for Team 7, started to relax a little and smile at her praise. "But I doubt it. Okay maggots, you're all going to report to training ground 44 tomorrow at 8:00 AM sharp. If you're late than you're out, you got that?" Her eyes fell on Naruto." Oh, my team is actually competing? That's nice. See you all later maggots."

Once they were dismissed, Naruto grabbed his teammates and dragged them to his favorite ramen stand. Forcing them down into their chairs, he ordered food for the three of them and tried to level with them, but they wouldn't listen and left quickly leaving a distraught Naruto with his head on the counter.

--

"You're going to spend the next five days in this training ground. Number 44 here is known as the Forest of Death, and it's filled completely with the stuff nightmares are made of. You guys probably aren't ready to play with the bigger animals yet, so I am required to tell you to please be careful, and please try not to lose any of your more important limbs. To make sure you understand what I'm saying, fill out and submit these release forms."

_That's just perfect. She's giving us survival training. How are we supposed to be able to get through survival training_? Naruto spared a look at Sasuke and Hinata, both of whom had already filled out their forms. _They really do have death wishes. Maybe we can just hide out for the duration and let them heal up_. He filled out his own form, and the team went up to turn them in. After turning in their forms, they were handed back a sealed scroll with Heaven written on it. "And just what is this?" demanded Sasuke.

"That is your starting scroll. You need to end with both this scroll and it's counterpart in order to pass this stage."

"That's just typical. She doesn't give all of the details herself. Come on guys, let's go." Team 7 made its way to their starting gate. "Are you sure we want to do this?" Sasuke's glare met him, and Hinata remained quiet. The buzzer went off and they made their way into the Forest.

--

"I asked you guys if you were sure when we entered this hellhole. We haven't been this badly beaten since our last mission."

"We got both scrolls."

"You were attacked by one of the most powerful ninjas out there, and he left you something to remember him by. That thing's not normal, right?" Naruto asked turning to look at Hinata. She remained curled up in the corner of the room that they were assigned not saying anything. All of the teams that would be moving onward would be meeting the next day. "And thanks to you, my Chakra is all weird because of that stupid thing he hit me with. Now our team is practically useless. And you owe me a new cape!"

"I do not. It's not my fault you let yourself get eaten by a snake. Besides, we got here didn't we? We're in the clear now. When my brother passed his Chunin Exam he had a month between the second and third stages. We're fine."

"Naruto, don't worry. We did well. We're going to pass the test and then Mommy will be proud of me."

"Well if your mom is going to be proud of you," mumbled Naruto.

"What did you say?" asked Hinata quietly.

"I said than why am I still worried?"

"Because you worry too much, Naruto," replied Sasuke. "We'll deal with it in the morning." And so, Team 7 turned in for the night, and again Naruto could not sleep.

_Agh, I have the worst headache_. They got up and made their way out of their room to the small arena on the first floor.

"So you all made it. That's good," said Anko in welcoming from atop the stage at the end with the Third, and various other Jonin. "It just means that our new test design was not hard enough. Anyways, there's too many of you, and because you all made it, we're going to have to conduct preliminaries. Only the most entertaining of you will be able to proceed." She smiled wide. "And by entertaining, I mean not lame."

"The Third took over from Anko. "This test above all was adopted by the allied nations so that we could showcase our skills against each other and in short show our country off. It is a replacement for war; do not lose sight of what this test really stands for. The most important thing is that you are each responsible for representing your own countries, and as Anko already mentioned, because there are too many of you, we will be holding preliminaries. The preliminaries will have the same rules, the same restrictions, and is in every way identical to the tournament that will be held one month from now. All matches will be one-on-one, and you will only pass if you beat your opponent, or if your opponent gives up. Of course, the proctor for this part of the test will have the last word in all matches."

The proctor came over to stand with the Third. "These will be the first time preliminary matches will be conducted in many years. You participants show a great amount of promise, but at least half of you will be cut." Hayate then asked if any of the assembled Genin would like to back out. Only Kabuto did, despite how the others tried to get him to stay. Hayate continued. "The matches will be chosen at random, so if you could clear the arena, we can begin the first match. Hayate activated the screen and names started whizzing by to stop on Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado.

Anko who had just appeared behind Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and stopped him from leaping in. "That isn't any ordinary hickie he gave you while you were in the forest. Don't use chakra while you're down there. Oh well, break a leg," and with that she pushed him over the railing and into the ring.

Sasuke tried to face Yoroi using only Taijutsu, but it wasn't working very well. Yoroi was very well versed in draining Chakra out of his opponents through contact, so every time he blocked Sasuke, Sasuke weakened. Sasuke was promptly able to make use of his defeat, and mimicking one of the attacks that Rock Lee had used on him earlier, drove him into the ground, knocking him out. Hayate declared the match and then waited for the next two names to be chosen. The screen stopped on Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. Both girls slowly made their way to the arena. Their match was drawn out and lasted almost twenty minutes. In the end, they both hit each other with their final punch and the match ended in double-knockout. The third match was Temari vs. Tenten. That match was over quickly.

Both girls were long-range fighters, and it seemed like Temari was playing with Tenten. As Tenten threw her weapons at Temari, Temari would use strong gusts of wind from her fan and blow them all back, some of them hitting Tenten as they flew pell-mell in all directions. Tenten kept on upping the ante, going so far as to use her strongest combination of moves. She emptied two scrolls of weaponry at her opponent, and used the attached cable to redirect them at Temari for a second attack, but it was all in vain. Temari concluded the match by striking Tenten directly with wind leaving small cuts across her body and lifting her up into the air. Temari stopped concentrating, closed her fan, and planted it into the ground. "Call it," she declared. Tenten fell towards the ground and landed on her back on top of the fan at a sick angle and didn't move. Temari threw her off her fan and began to walk away. Gai came and took Tenten to the infirmary.

The fourth match was Shikamaru vs. Kin. Kin employed her bells and attempted to use Genjutsu to confuse Shikamaru, but Shikamaru was able to overcome it and use his clan Jutsu and a wall to knock her unconscious. Next up were Naruto and Kiba. Kiba used Beast-Mimicry and took off in a blast of speed that Naruto had difficulty keeping up with. Using Transformation in order to try and trick Kiba only stalled him for a minute, and didn't work well when he had his dog imitating his own form. _At least I came into this test with a few extra goodies. As Anko taught us, make your opponents strengths his weakness_. Naruto reached into his pouch and withdrew a stink bomb. Anko had taught them how to make them a month after Team 7 had been formed. She really didn't trust vendors and made sure her team could make at least some of the equipment they needed by themselves. As Kiba got close to him, he threw the bomb on the ground hard. Kiba was almost instantly incapacitated, and it was easy for Naruto to create some Shadow Clones and use a combination of kicks and punches between the five of them to knock him out, but not seriously hurt him.

Naruto went back up into the stands to stand with Hinata. An ANBU with a dog mask had come and asked for Sasuke during Shikamaru's match, and with Anko's approval, had taken him away to deal with the seal on his shoulder. "Good job Naruto. I hope that I'll be able to win my match like you did so Mommy will be proud."

"Don't worry, I know you're strong and you'll defeat whoever you face when it's your turn." He looked at Hinata, but saw that all the color was draining out of her face. "Hinata, is something wrong?"

"No. Yes. I can't fight him." She dropped to the ground and curled up and tried to be invisible. Naruto looked at the board and read the names. Neji Hyuga and Hinata Hyuga were displayed, and Neji had already made his way into the arena, looking very smug about the match up.

"Come on Hinata. Weren't we just talking about you beating your opponent and joining me and Sasuke in the Finals? You can do this."

"I can't beat him," she squeaked in response with a few tears in her eyes.

"Fine then, you can forfeit your match. Don't worry about disappointing your teammates who have seen how hard you've been working to protect those that are close to you and don't worry about disappointing your teacher, because she won't care. There are only going to be two people who are going to be disappointed, and those are you, and the Mother you keep talking about pleasing."

Hinata looked up at him and the tears stopped flowing. "I won't disappoint my mom."

"Then get up," Naruto directed. Hinata got up to her feet slowly. "Clean your face, you look like you were just crying." Hinata wiped her face with one of the sleeves of her jacket. "Now get down there, and make your mom proud." Hinata made her way into the arena, her footsteps quickening as she got closer to her destination, and her resolve stronger than it had been in years. _Naruto is right. I will defeat Neji, and I will make Mommy proud_.

As she arrived in front of Neji and Hayate, she looked and declared, "I am ready. I will beat you cousin."

Neji looked her in the eyes, and choked down a laugh. He could remember when Hinata's mother was alive, and he remembered how much promise she had when she was younger, but after she died, Hinata couldn't even look at her own hands, and now was convinced that she could beat him? Nobody would demean the prodigy of the Branch Family and get away with it. Not even the precious Heiress, even if she was a member of the Main Family and his cousin. "You are ready? I have seen every way that this match could end, and none of them end well for you." Neji activated his Bloodline without the associated hand signs, which showed his mastery of the Bloodline. "I will give you this one chance to walk away."

Hinata went through her hand signs and also activated her Bloodline. "I'm not going anywhere cousin. I will make my mother proud."

Neji rushed Hinata and he threw a punch which Hinata blocked. Chakra spilled out over the area they were fighting from their attacks and blocks, which were all reinforced with the stuff in attempts to block the attacks that could easily kill if they were not careful. Hinata's lack of practice in the style became evident as Neji began landing glancing hits on her through her defense. Hinata tried to vary her attacks. Anko's training regiment had allowed Hinata to focus her Chakra better than she ever was, and they had been able to adapt the fighting style to use kicks and sweeps reinforced with Chakra similar to their hands. She hoped using it would give her an edge that Neji could not adapt to. Blocking another one of his punches, she continued to spin into her next move, launching a sweep that knocked Neji onto his back. She tried to press her attack but stumbled. Some of Neji's attacks had damaged her leg, and even though the attacks in this style only caused directed damage to the internal organs there were spots of blood leaking through a part of her leg. While Neji got up off of the ground, she did the only thing she could think of. Using a length of bandage from her pouch, she tied it around the major artery in her thigh and tied it tightly and securely. The medics could address the actual damage after the match. As Neji approached, Hinata threw a punch. Neji didn't even move as her punch landed directly on his chest. Neji went flying back, but the usual spike of Chakra that had been flying around during previous parts of the match was absent. Hinata's arm felt like it had been set on fire. She held it to herself and nursed it gently. She could see several red spots going up her arm.

"Did you like that move? I made it up myself. Using my own Chakra, I plug the tenketsu in your hand witch forces your chakra back up your arm, overloading the other tenketsu in its path until the Chakra dissipates. I doubt you will be able to use that arm very well anymore." Even with her right arm incapacitated, Hinata resisted the advances of her cousin for ten more minutes, Neji getting angrier as the match wore on. By that point, Hinata was suffering from her previously injured arm and leg, and sported some new superficial injuries from her attempts to use weaponry to make up for her inability to properly use her fighting style. Neji was barely hurt at all, and had only suffered from glancing blows throughout the match. They faced each other, and Hinata knew she only had enough for one last hit. She tested her bad arm, thinking she might be able to get enough Chakra for one more hit out of her arm the way that it was. One strike, and then she would accept defeat, because she had nothing left. Hinata started running at him, and drew her arm back. Neji also pulled back his arm in preparation to strike, unconsciously funneling extra Chakra into his attack out of anger. As Hinata entered striking range, they both brought their arms forward. Hinata's attack landed and created a small spike of chakra, which knocked out her arm. Neji landed a direct hit on her chest and pumped a massive amount of Chakra into her Chakra System. She went flying back ten feet and skidded to a stop on her back unconscious and coughing up blood. Kurenai was at her side in an instant, opening her jacket and prompting the medical team into action. They loaded her up and carried her away.


	13. Chapter 13: Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

A/N: It seems that number of appearances made by Naruto's friend from the hospital scene in Chapter 11 will be increasing. As such, I don't want to refer to him as 'him' all the time so I named him. He will be now referred to as Norio. Yeah, I'm not good with names, which is why I tried to put it off. The story will start diverging further from canon around this part of the story. Read and Review.

Chapter Thirteen: Aftermath

Naruto and Sasuke were sparring. A little ways from them, Hinata was lying down, resting. It had been one week since the events of the preliminary fights. According to Hinata, the Doctors had been quite strict: "Do not overexert yourself until you are fully healed." And so, trying to mind the Doctor's orders, Naruto and Sasuke were focusing on the third test, which would be in three weeks, and Naruto made sure that she rested appropriately. In that week, Anko had paid specific attention to Sasuke, explaining just what she would do if he ever lost control and released the seal that the ANBU had used to counter his "hickie" as she insisted on calling it. Needless to say, Sasuke was more than a little nervous at her threats. Naruto was releasing his pent-up frustrations into the spar. He was still bitter about how the team went ahead and enlisted for the test even thought it was not in their best interests. There would always be more tests. Going through the hand seals, Naruto bit down on his thumb and placed his bloody hand on the ground. With a surge of chakra, a 20 foot long snake appeared, certainly not the boss, but still large in any respect. Sasuke stared at his sparring partner dumbfounded. They almost never used snakes in their spars. More hand seals from Naruto resulted in a large fireball shooting at him. Sasuke launched his own fireball and dove out of the way of the tail of Naruto's snake, but Naruto was no longer on the snake. Naruto landed a punch directly on Sasuke's face, sending him flying back. Before he could hit the ground, Naruto made a punching move and shot more snakes out at Sasuke which bound him up and ruined his landing.

Before Naruto could make another move, two things happened. One, Anko arrived on the scene, surveying the carnage, and Sasuke bound on the ground. Two, Hinata had come up behind Naruto and grabbed him around the shoulders attempting to calm him down, and hold him back. She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "It's not his fault that we took the test, so you don't have to hold him responsible. Look at me, I'm fine. Please calm down, Naruto." And Naruto, indeed calmed down enough to release Sasuke from his bindings.

"And here I was hoping you'd actually learned something from me. You didn't even cut him. Not even a little." Naruto glared at her, and threw a kunai at her. Anko caught it deftly, and threw it back at him, hard. It cut a line across his cheek, and behind him, Hinata jumped away, as if afraid that Anko might try to do something. "Don't try that again, brat. You'll regret it." Naruto stalked off to the side to train by himself. This had happened every time the team had met to train over the last week. Naruto and Sasuke would practice on each other, Naruto would lose his temper, Hinata would calm him down, and Anko would just get a kick out of the whole thing.

Standing in front of one of the trees surrounding the training grounds, he funneled his anger into the tree. Strong punches and kicks rained down on the tree, destroying the top layers of the bark, and scraping up his fists. Hinata came over to watch him, and soon after Norio joined her. Norio had been worried about Naruto ever since he met with him in the hospital when Hinata had woken up. He hadn't even mentioned how it was thanks to him that Naruto no longer had to wear orange. "How's he doing?"

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it," replied Hinata. "He thinks it's his fault that I got hurt, but I'm fine." She winced as a particular punch left a fairly deep cut.

"Naruto's always been like that. He doesn't want to see any of his friends get hurt, and it's not like he has a lot of friends around here anyway."

"What about you?"

"I'm not really here all the time, and Naruto doesn't really listen to me very much. We just go way back. At least I was finally able to convince him to ditch that hideous orange jumpsuit.

"I'm worried. I don't know if he'll be able to let go."

"Why would you want him to? I've seen the way he looks at you. He cares about you, and he doesn't want to see you get hurt."

"But why would Naruto look at me?"

"You've never treated him poorly, you work well with him, and I know that you feel the same way about him." Hinata blushed at the implication. "Why are you even over here? You should be down there, with him."

"My dad is not going to be happy about this," Hinata replied, but she smiled and made her way over to Naruto. "Hey Naruto, we should spar. I promise I'll give you a better workout than that Uchiha Brat."

--

Anko watched as her nephew stormed off. Even if it was out of character for herself, she was worried about him. What would the others think if they heard that she was actually worried about somebody? Sasuke had told her how Naruto had recommended that they sit out the test and allow for them to regain their strength but how he and Hinata had overruled him, and decided to press forward. Admittedly, Sasuke was not cooperative at first, but Ibiki owed her some favors, and eventually he blabbed. Anko left the grounds heading towards the Hokage Tower. She still needed to talk to the Third about the Itachi incident. Directly after Anko was well enough to walk were the exams, and because the exams were an extremely important political event, she had not been available for a debriefing for their latest failed mission. It was fortunate that the final mission had not actually been entered into the record yet. Five successful C-rank missions looked a lot better than five successful and one failed, after all.

Anko came up to the Hokage's office and was about to enter through her window when she heard the Third's voice. "I'll have you know that she did not recover. I realize that this sort of thing happens during these exams, and what has happened has happened, but I feel that this was an unnecessary loss. We will need to host a memorial service after the exams. It's a shame, she had so much potential."

Neji scoffed at the Third's words. "The sacrifice of her Fire of Youth will inspire all that knew her. She will not be forgotten."

"You're dismissed." The occupants of the room filed out, leaving the Third by himself.

"So she's really gone?" asked Anko as she let herself in.

The Third looked up at her. "What is it you want Anko?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I was under the impression that the Jonin instructors were supposed to be debriefed after their missions were completed. But if you don't want me here . . ."

"Anko, it's not every C-rank mission that lands every member of its squad in the hospital, even if it is somewhat expected of you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Report," the Third said as he glared at her.

"Ok, ok; God I hate it when you do that. My team was heading to the rendezvous. We were supposed to escort a caravan to the next town. Out of nowhere, Itachi Uchiha lands in front of us. I think that he jumped off of one of the ledges in the canyon we were passing through outside of Konoha or something. He hit Hinata and Sasuke with some insane Genjutsu that knocked them out cold. Naruto and I did our best to hold him back, and wait for backup, but it wasn't good enough. I tried to get Itachi to focus on me, but he didn't focus on me until the end. He focused all of his attacks on Naruto, and some of those were really drastic attacks. One of the final ones knocked the little slime-ball out.

"As soon as he falls over Itachi grabs his shirt and picks him up. He starts to walk away."

_Flashback_

_"Where do you think you're going asshole?" Itachi didn't respond, and just kept walking with Naruto slung over his shoulder. "Hey! I'm talking to you, you stupid shit!" Itachi didn't reply. "Maybe you'll respond to this." Anko shot a lightning Jutsu off at him. Not a lot of elemental Jutsu had been used in the fight so far. Itachi had more or less ignored her, and now that the three Genin were down, she had to give it her all. As the lightning approached Itachi, he dropped Naruto on the floor, and turned around sharply to face Anko with his Sharingan eyes blazing. "Shit," stated Anko. Itachi's hands glowed with chakra and he simply deflected her attack with one hand so that it struck one of the canyon's walls leaving a five foot deep crater in the wall. Reaching for the sword he kept on his back, he quickly drew it out from over his shoulder and let loose a concentrated blast of chakra that was so white, it hurt to look at it. Anko hurriedly dove out of the way and rolled landing on her stomach. Staring as the chakra hit the wall, and cut straight through it until it dissipated Anko realized just how close that had been. A part of the canyon wall slid away and crashed into the ground. From her position on the floor, she glared at where Itachi was standing but he was no longer there. Cursing, Anko quickly swiveled her head and looked around trying to find him. A sword point broke through the ground and pierced through her right side, and she did her best to refrain from screaming, and instead switched with one of the rocks in the area._

_The sword was still sticking through her, and she wasn't sure it was safe to pull it out. It would open the wound and she would start to bleed out. Rubbing her hand across the blood leaking out around the sword, she made the hand signs and slammed her hand on the ground. The ground surrounding her for 10 meters in every direction was covered with writhing snakes, all of them poisonous, making it difficult to focus entirely on the fight. Itachi brought his hands up and whipped through hand signs at a high speed. The sky darkened, and ten bolts of lightening shot down onto the battle field, around the snake pit. Standing up out of the ten craters in the ground were Lightning Elemental Clones of Itachi. "I found out this is more effective when the clones are already unstable," they all stated. Anko paled. The ten clones suddenly exploded sending lightening bolts scattering in all directions and tearing apart the ground on witch they were standing on._

_Thirty feet away from the destroyed area, Anko reappeared from her hasty body flicker and tried to catch her breath. Unfortunately, Itachi was right behind her and grabbing her by her right arm, he twisted it behind her back and pinned her against the wall. "What is he to you?" Itachi asked her._

_"That's none of your fucking business!" Anko yelled back at him through the pain that was shooting up her arm and the pain through her chest. She struggled against him and finally twisted to her right getting her arm out of its uncomfortable position and faced him. Itachi twisted with her, and threw her over his shoulder and slammed her into the ground, then stepped in and twisted her arm around and snapped it over his left leg. Anko twisted up onto her feet, her right arm dangling uselessly like a rag-doll's. She used all her concentration to body flicker away again. Sitting against the base of the cliff, she cradled her arm and tried to think._

_"Stop trying to run," she heard from behind her._

_"Shit," Anko stated as Itachi came through the cliff face and kicked her hard, launching her into the air and crashing her into the other cliff face. She landed on her feet and kicked at him as he ran up to her again, but he countered it with enough force to break the leg, and she fell over onto the ground. Punching with her good arm, Anko sent a single snake slithering away to get reinforcements._

_Itachi looked down at her. "I grow tired of this, so I will finish it," he stated calmly._

_Anko scoffed. "That's it. You're just going to 'finish this'?"_

_Itachi crouched down next to her, the three tomoe in his eyes spinning quickly and merging together to create a new shape, just like at the beginning of the fight when he attacked Hinata and Sasuke. "Amaterasu," Itachi whispered. Black flames poured from his left eye, hotter than any fire technique that Anko had ever felt before. She could feel her skin burning before the actual flames were even present and she could see all of the vegetation within fifty feet of them spontaneously combust. She quickly unlocked the first of the Celestial Gates and ignoring all of the pain in her body she punched against the cliff face as hard as she could, trying to get out of the blast zone. Looking back, she could see the flames hit the ground exactly where she was lying turning the ground into something similar to lava and the flames leaping up 100 feet into the air and twisting continuously, like a hurricane. Then she heard the attack. Gale force winds and the intense sound of open flames rushed past her, the force of the sound pushing her further away as the column of black flames begin to expand out until it dissipated. Anko just stared at where she had been lying when that attack had begun. All of the surfaces in that part of the canyon were glowing red from the shear heat of the attack, and even thought the flames had dissipated, they had not gone out. The flames were still burning throughout the area. Then Anko grimaced as all of her muscles seized up as the First Celestial Gate snapped shut again, and all of her muscles tried to repair the damage dealt to them from opening it in the first place. Before passing out from the pain, Anko saw Itachi coming over to her. "I'm going to need this back," he declared and pulled his sword out of her gut. Then he was gone, and she passed out._

_End Flashback_.

"The next thing I know, Ibiki and an ANBU team have picked us up."

"I see," the Third replied.

"What really bugs me though is that when Itachi left, he didn't get further away, he was just gone. The others didn't sense anything either."

"A clone?" suggested the Third.

"There is no way in holy hell that the thing I was fighting was just a clone. I had broken bones and a sword through my chest. Most clones are not capable of doing something like that. The Third sighed. This was going to take awhile.

--

"Talk about a better workout. Sasuke couldn't even touch me," Naruto managed between breaths. He and Hinata were lying down in the grass and both of them were completely exhausted. "I don't think I can throw another punch."

"That's because of my family's fighting style."

"Huh?"

"We use Chakra to make our attacks more powerful. It's a different form of Taijutsu."

"Wow. Is that why I can't feel my arms? They feel like they've fallen asleep."

Hinata blushed. "I didn't want to use too much Chakra. Neji used the same fighting style at the exams and you saw what it is capable of doing. I wouldn't want to do something like that to you, Naruto."

"Oh, look how cozy the two of you look," cooed Norio as he approached them. "Seriously, that's a very good line, Hinata. If I didn't know that you both like each other, I would totally be grabbing you up right now."

"Norio?" asked Hinata shyly.

"Get the hell out of here you ass."

"Talk about ruining the moment," stated Norio. "You should watch your language in front of the lady, Naruto. I guess I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone then." Norio left quickly so that Naruto wouldn't be able to chase him.

"One of these days, I'm going to chase that kid all the way back to whatever the hell village he comes from and have them chain him to a flagpole or something," Naruto managed through his blush. Hinata, also blushing, laughed at Naruto's threat to their mutual friend.

"Naruto, I'm getting a little hungry."

Naruto stopped her before she could say anything more. "I know just the thing to fill your empty stomach."

Hinata smiled at Naruto. "I'm sorry, I don't feel like ramen. I think you eat too much of it. I think that you would fill out so much better if you ate something else from time to time." Naruto's jaw was hanging open as she spoke things he considered blasphemy against his favorite food. "No Naruto. Tonight, I am making you something special. We're going shopping." Naruto groaned. _She's going to make me carry the bags isn't she_?

--

"What a fool," declared Anko as she was finally allowed to leave the Hokage's office. Try as she might, she couldn't convince the Third that what she was fighting was not a clone. It was odd though, the ANBU team did not find any footprints, or any evidence of any kind that suggested Itachi was ever there. If they were to go by what Anko was suggesting, Itachi appeared out of nowhere and was able to disappear just as easily. Making her way through the village, her anger apparent to all who saw her, she witnessed a strange sight. Her nephew was leaving a stall, seemingly one of the ones that did not refuse service to him with seven different bags of groceries. She smiled as she kept walking. It was good that he was going to finally eat real food as opposed to his ramen-only diet. She was also smiling because the amount of negativity in the village that was targeted against him had gone down since the Chunin Exam preliminaries. When he fought against Kiba, he had come up with a good strategy, and he had impressed a lot of the higher ups. It was good to see that not everybody was stuck in the past. He seemed to be grumbling as he made his way home, mentioning something about how he wanted ramen. Anko laughed one of her insane laughs and went home.

--

"Naruto, you're making me feel bad."

"I wanted to take you to and treat you to ramen," he grumbled.

"You paid for the groceries. Think of it like treating me. Now I want you to try what I made for you. Please?" Hinata asked and made a puppy-dog look with wide eyes.

"Why does everyone try to make me do things?" Naruto demanded. Hinata pouted. "All right, I'll eat it for you."

"Don't worry, I made enough for both of us," Hinata declared.

They ate in silence for a little bit. "It's good," Naruto finally declared.

"Really?" she asked. "Oh, I'm so happy. They don't really let me cook that much at home. They keep telling me it's beneath me, and that I should make the Branch Family members take care of it.'

"So you said that your family uses Chakra in your fighting style."

"Yeah, but we're not meant to teach it to anybody outside of the clan."

"As your teammate I am offended that you will not teach me the style," said Naruto, clearly teasing.

Hinata cleared the table and the two of them went to sit on the sofa in the living room. "Well, we can't have that, can we?" she replied as she winked at him.

"No, we can't."

"So what exactly are we going to do about it?"

"Well, I suppose that I'd just have to teach it to you." Hinata pouted.

"Yes, this will totally help me bring Sasuke down when I face him in the Tournament."

"There's only one problem now."

"And what's that?"

"Daddy is going to kick me out when he finds out."

"You mean if he finds out, right?"

"No, he'll find out. He can see everything."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to let you stay here."

"Like your little sister?"

"I think we can figure it out as we go along."

"I knew this morning that my dad was going to be upset with me." She curled up on the sofa and leaned her head on Naruto's shoulder.

"Whatever you do, just don't tell Norio. I don't want him to be right about anything else in my life."

"All right, Naruto." Soon after, she was asleep.


	14. Chapter 14: Jiraiya Arrives

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

A/N: Stupid school; stupid writer's block. It was so hard to write this chapter, you have no idea. Development of the storyline is much harder than I thought it would be. I actually trashed what I wrote and started over. The original material was so awful, and showed me how bad my writing of fluff is, even though a small chunk of the original did make it into the chapter anyways. Don't hate me for making you wait so long. Happy New Year! Read, review, enjoy.

Chapter Fourteen: Jiraiya Arrives

"Again," called Hinata. Naruto complied, slipping into the stance and focusing chakra, but he was already tired from repeating the kata so many times. As he started the movements, Hinata stopped him. "No, Naruto. I told you that this kata is supposed to be hard-hitting and supposed to create an overall feeling of strength. Your movements are too sloppy."

"I liked the other kata better than this. It flowed way better."

"Well that's a shame, Naruto, because we are doing this kata now. That kata is a beginner's kata and you finished it, so now we're moving on. Now do it again, and this time remember," Hinata lectured as she got into her own stance, "hard-hitting and strong." Hinata struck the training-dummy in front of them, which was almost completely destroyed from the attack.

"Whoa," exclaimed Naruto.

"Do it again."

"Right," said Naruto, and he proceeded to perform the kata again. It had been a week since the night that Hinata had made dinner for Naruto and had begun to train with him in her style. Her father appeared to be none the wiser, seeing as how she hadn't been punished for it.

"No Naruto! I told you."

Naruto cut her off. "I know, I know, I heard you. It has to be hard-hitting and strong. Doesn't your family have a fighting style that uses your chakra based attacks while maintaining speed and strength? This kata does not flow. It's too stiff."

Hinata crossed her arms over her chest. "My family has used this same fighting style for generations. You should be happy that I'm showing it to you at all, but you keep trying to change it."

"Well maybe if it wasn't so stiff and boring I wouldn't need to change it," Naruto retorted.

"Do it again," Hinata demanded. Naruto groaned.

--

The Chunin Guards that were assigned to the Main Gate snapped to attention when the saw a figure approaching on the road. One of the first things that were drilled into all of the Chunin was to look underneath the underneath. You could never take a person at face value, so when Jiraiya the Sannin approached, it took them some time to clear him and admit him into the village. And once he was cleared, he had to decide whether to report directly to the Hokage, or pay his favorite muses a visit. It had been several years since he had been in the village, after all. In the end, he did get to the Hokage's office, even if it took longer than he thought it might.

"So why did you call me back? Your message sounded pretty urgent to me, so I rushed over here as fast as I could."

"Where have you been Jiraiya? It was reported to me that you entered this village six hours ago."

Jiraiya had a lecherous look on his face as he thought back to the events of the last few hours. "Let's just say that my next novel will be quite engaging, and might be out sooner than even I thought it might be. It's a good thing, too. My publisher has been grilling me about the next installment for a couple of years now."

"I don't know if I can condone this action in my village Jiraiya."

"You have and you will. Now what did you want? I am quite sure that it has more to do than my next book, although I know you'll want an autographed copy when it is released."

"Some of my Chunin Exam participants were visited by one of our mutual friends. He used some seals that I am sure you're familiar with. You created one of them with him."

Jiraiya's face was instantly set into a serious face, all jovial matters forgotten in an instant. "He used the Five-Elements Seal on a mere Genin? What Genin would he consider powerful enough to use it on?"

"That would be the boy Naruto."

Jiraiya frowned. "I told you before that I would not condone the actions of the villagers. It was the reason that I decided to maintain my Spy Network from abroad instead of in this Village. Why would you bring me back?"

"The boy was only one of the targets. The second child has been given one of Orochimaru's Cursed Seals. As for Naruto, surely you can realize that this was not an actual attack done by this village. I believe that Orochimaru is up to something."

"Fine, I will examine your Genin. Don't expect me to teach either one of them anything. I've already taught one Hokage hopeful only to see this village tear him and his family apart, I'm not letting it happen again. I'm just here to take a look at those seals."

"I'm sure that Anko will be appreciative. She may not say this herself, but she's worried about her nephew."

"That girl was never one to wear her emotions on her sleeve. Except that one time I asked her to pose for one of my upcoming books. She was livid after that. Minato had to hide his books until she calmed down."

"She always was the hot-headed sibling."

"I should go," declared Jiraiya, turning to leave. "The sooner I look at your Genin, the sooner I can leave again. Research doesn't conduct itself, you know."

The Third just rolled his eyes. "Will you at least stay until the memorial that will be conducted after the tournament? The village would be honored if you would attend."

"Unless something interesting happens, I don't think I will." And with that Jiraiya was gone.

--

"I didn't think that you would get the Rotation so quickly. It usually takes Main House family members a couple of months to get it right," Hinata praised Naruto.

Next to her Naruto was lying on the ground breathing hard. "You know, I was thinking . . ."

Hinata promptly interrupted him, a look of incredulity on her face. "Please tell me that you aren't going to change the Rotation and create a perverse version of it as well? Naruto, please; these moves have been the same for generations."

"And that is exactly the reason why some of it needs to be changed. As strong a defensive measure that the Rotation is, it could be stronger, and there are different applications of it that can be used."

Hinata lay down on the grass with him. "Like what?" she asked.

"By turning your body to use it, you get dizzy easily. And you can only get the chakra to move in one direction. If we could direct the chakra with our arms, we could get the chakra to spin in multiple directions, and increase the effectiveness of it."

Hinata thought about it. "If we could get it to work, it would be a lot stronger, but now it sounds like a drill. Maybe we could make an attack out of it?"

Naruto's eyes slowly slid shut. "Too tired," he managed to say. Hinata smiled and curled up next to him

--

The pair was left alone for a couple of hours, until Jiraiya made his way into the area that they were training in. He saw Naruto lying there and strode over to him. He looked so much like Minato, it was uncanny. Jiraiya promptly summoned a toad that was half his own height. "Please wake him," he requested. The toad quickly saw the resemblance between the boy in front of him, and his former summoner and promptly dowsed the boy in water.

Naruto quickly sat up, his eyes having a tinge of red in them, his hands coming up quickly and going through the three hand signs that Ibiki had seen him use years prior and shot a crackling bolt of white-hot lightning at the toad, instantly returning it back to the dimension that the summoned creatures resided in. Jiraiya's eyes widened, as Naruto's eyes returned to their normal blue. Even smaller summoned creatures were able to take a reasonable amount of punishment. To dispel one so easily from somebody so young was surprising. Naruto quickly looked around. "Hinata?" he asked. She was no longer with him.

Jiraiya just looked at him. "Who's Hinata?" he asked. His eyes widened and he grinned lecherously. "Oh, I get it. The youth of Konoha will never cease to amaze me."

Naruto sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Jiraiya sighed. Perhaps he had been expecting too much out of him.

--

"What the hell did you do, release his seal?" Jiraiya barked across the desk.

"What happened?" the Third inquired.

"Oh I wonder," said Jiraiya mockingly. "I'm the Third Hokage, and two of my Genin were attacked by my former student who abandoned the leaf. Let's get Jiraiya out here to clean up his mess for us." Jiraiya started pacing around the office. "Oh, while we have him on clean-up duty, let's NOT tell him that Naruto is no longer stable. Won't that be fun?" There was silence in the office for a minute before Jiraiya continued. "Isn't Anko here yet?"

"If you remembered anything about the family your former student came from, than you should remember that she always makes an entrance. Granted her recent injuries have toned her down, but she is obviously not here yet."

"What did you do to him?"

"Danzo and the counsel thought he was performing too well. I had my suspicions, but could not be sure of anything until one of the ANBU confessed it to me."

"He was probably already broken by that point."

"As unfortunate as it is, yes he was."

"And what did you do for him after that?"

The doors were kicked open from the outside of the office. "He dressed him in orange and released him back into the city," offered Anko as she made her way into the office, her arm still in a sling. "What the hell is he doing here?" she asked the Third.

"It's nice to see you too," grumbled Jiraiya.

"Perfectly lovely, I agree," replied Anko in a cheeky tone. Then with anger on her face, and in her voice, "do you honestly think that I would still talk to you?" Her good arm rising up quickly, Anko pointed at the sofa under the window. "Just sit down, stop talking, keep quiet, burn painfully in hell, and shut the fuck up." Anko turned to face the Third. "Why the hell is that scumbag here?"

"He called for me."

Anko turned on the Sannin. "Stop talking to me, or so help me you will feel every last bit of the pain you caused my family courtesy of one of my kunai, Sannin or not. Got it?"

"I asked him to come," interrupted the Third. "I thought that he could look at your students and help you out."

"This man does not help people. He ruined everything."

"My knowledge of seals is what is needed for this situation," said Jiraiya.

"If this is because of the damn hickie that me and my student now have I know how to get rid of them, and all it takes is a knife."

"You are not stabbing your student."

"It's not like you've given your students the armaments to stab the people around them before. No, wait." Anko rested her head on her good arm, as if thinking. There was that one time with my brother."

"No."

"If it worked for me, then it will work for our Emo-Eyes Uchiha, too."

"I told you to wait. If you hadn't stabbed the damn thing when you got it, than I could have figured out how it works and removed it for you. You wouldn't have that scar on your shoulder anymore."

"I waited a damn month for you to come up with a way to remove it. You were no closer to removing it at the end of the month than when you started. I can't hear him anymore, I solved the problem."

"You almost killed yourself. If you had been discovered ten minutes later, you would not be alive."

"What you did before that hurt me more than any flesh wound can." The old her would have broken down long before this admission, but that would never happen now. She had made sure of it.

The Third broke the awkward silence. "Somehow, I don't believe that Jiraiya has observed Sasuke yet. He was just talking to me about your nephew."

"Don't you mean what's left of him?" demanded Jiraiya.

"He may have a split personality, but he is still one whole person," retorted Anko.

"As I said, he is mentally unstable. Who knows what he might do."

"Naruto is extremely loyal to this village."

"Yes, Naruto may be loyal to your village, but what about the others? Do you think that after having developed a split personality that he will be wholly loyal?"

"So now the seal specialist is going to play psychologist? This is going to be rich. Psychologists have been telling me that I should just end my sad existence and to join my brother for years."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "You visited a psychologist?"

"The old man thought it would be a good idea. It's a good thing that I think what they say is a load of crap."

The Third sighed deeply from his chair. Could nobody ever stick to the point? "Jiraiya," he interrupted the continued pointless banter between the other two occupants in the room. "Where did Naruto's newest injuries come from?"

"What the hell? He got hurt again???" Anko practically yelled.

"We were attacked," Jiraiya said simply.

"You were attacked? Somebody out there is actually dumb enough to attack one of the Sannin by themselves?" demanded Anko.

"I'm serious. Some young guy I've never met before. He had a foul mouth; even worse than yours on a bad day. I couldn't really see any of his physical features. He looked kind of wiry, but he was covered from head to toe in a black cloak with red clouds on it."

"Black cloak with red clouds?" wondered the Third.

Anko had gone pale. "So it's that kind of person dumb enough to attack a Sannin by themselves. This is bad."

"What is it?" asked the Third.

"He focused on Naruto didn't he?" Anko asked. "He tried to take him?"

"Yes. He paid little attention to me, and kept his focus on Naruto at almost all times."

"This guy works with Itachi. When Itachi attacked us before the exams he was dressed almost identically to what you described, and his attitude was very similar. Itachi ignored the rest of us, knocked Naruto out, picked him up, and started walking away. He didn't even pay attention to me until I used stronger Jutsu on him."

"In my fight, Naruto was unable to fight."

"The kid has trained under me for six months. What do you mean he was unable to fight?"

"He was a hostage."

"Shit."


End file.
